HHS is defending the qualifications of Eric Keroack, who the Bush administration earlier this month appointed as deputy assistant secretary for population affairs, amid congressional opposition, CQ HealthBeat reports (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 11/26). Keroack before the appointment was medical director for A Woman's Concern, a pregnancy-counseling organization. Many family planning advocates were angered by the appointment -- which does not require Senate confirmation -- noting that A Women's Concern opposes contraception and supports sexual abstinence until marriage. Keroack will advise HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on issues including reproductive health and adolescent pregnancy, and he will administer $283 million in annual family planning grants that HHS says are "designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 11/17). Seven Democratic members of the House and 14 Democratic senators last week sent letters to Leavitt calling for Keroack's appointment to be rescinded. Christina Pearson, spokesperson for HHS' Office of Population Affairs and Administration for Children and Families, said Keroack is not opposed to birth control, adding that he prescribed contraceptives as a physician in private practice (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 11/22). Keroack "has expressed to us that he will fulfill his programmatic responsibilities in accordance with the law, and we believe him," Pearson said, adding that Keroack's work for A Women's Concern accounted for only 20% of his time and involved providing ultrasound examinations to pregnant women and not counseling to women who were not pregnant (CQ HealthBeat, 11/26).

Editorials
The following newspapers recently published editorials and opinion pieces about Keroack's appointment.

• Chicago Sun-Times: Even if Keroack had been appointed "before the recent power shift in Congress, it would have been as puzzling a choice as it is ill-considered," a Sun-Times editorial says, adding, "In light of recent elections, which trended heavily in favor of candidates who support women's reproductive health rights, this appointment is the worst kind of politically motivated move: one that not only flies in the face of what the majority of Americans want, but one that can be regarded as a slap in the face by the millions it will affect" (Chicago Sun-Times, 11/28).
  
  
• Eugene Register-Guard: Keroack is an "abysmal choice to head an agency that is responsible for making contraceptives available to low-income women," and President Bush's selection underscores his "alarming willingness to ignore the lack of essential professional qualifications in an appointee who otherwise shares beliefs that are compatible with the president's religious faith," a Register-Guard editorial says (Eugene Register-Guard, 11/24).
  
  
• Lakeland Ledger: Keroack's appointment "is just the latest example" of the Bush administration's "in-your-face style of scorning compromise on sensitive issues," a Ledger editorial says, adding that the appointment "carries things to an extreme that we thought the American people had rejected fairly clearly" (Lakeland Ledger, 11/27).
  
  
• Los Angeles Times: As medical director of A Women's Concern, Keroack "has agitated against abortion and even contraception -- including for married women," a Times editorial says, adding that he "is an extremist so out of line with scientific thought that it is difficult to describe his views without laughing" (Los Angeles Times, 11/27).
  
  
• Louisville Courier-Journal: Keroack's appointment might be "the most egregious of all the post-election ... personnel choices" by the Bush administration, a Courier-Journal editorial says, adding that the appointment and other recent nominations "indicate that any moderation at the White House was nothing more than a post-election mirage" (Louisville Courier-Journal, 11/26).
  
  
• New York Times: Keroack's appointment "sounds like a late-night parody of Bush's bad habit of filling key posts with extreme ideologues and incompetents," a Times editorial says, adding that "apparent opposition to contraceptives, abortion and science ... was a winning trifecta" for the "unchastened Bush White House" (New York Times, 11/24).
  
  
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Keroack is not an "appropriate" choice to serve as HHS deputy assistant secretary for population affairs, a Post-Gazette editorial says, adding that Leavitt should withdraw Keroack's nomination because the "man just isn't qualified" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/27).
  
  
• Providence Journal: The decision to appoint Keroack was a "truly inappropriate" and "bizarre" choice, a Journal editorial says. "The means to plan their pregnancies is women's right and a societal good," the editorial says, adding, "A string of unplanned pregnancies can condemn women to a life of poverty. Dr. Keroack's appointment is a slap in the face of good public policy" (Providence Journal, 11/28).
  
  
• San Francisco Chronicle: Bush might have "set a new standard for designed incompatibility with his audacious choice" of Keroack, a Chronicle editorial says, adding, "Perhaps ... Bush believes that the key to doing a job well is hating everything it represents" (San Francisco Chronicle, 11/24).
  
  
• Springfield Republican: Keroack "works for an organization that opposes many of the family planning methods that are supported by HHS," a Republican editorial says, adding that Bush should "withdraw the appointment as a sign that he really did watch the election returns on Election Night" (Springfield Republican, 11/22).
  
  
• Tuscaloosa News: "Everyone is entitled [to] his or her kooky opinions, but to nominate a zealot to a post that finances birth control, pregnancy testing, breast cancer screening and other health services for five million women a year is beyond the pale," a News editorial says, adding, "Keroack's appointment should be withdrawn" (Tuscaloosa News, 11/27).
  

Opinion Pieces

• Cynthia Tucker, Baltimore Sun: Bush continued his "dogged resistance to reality" -- and "the conventions of the 21st century" -- with Keroack's appointment, Tucker, editorial page editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, writes in a Sun opinion piece. Despite Keroack's appointment, the "victory for moderation" in the November midterm elections has allowed for the formation of a "common-sense consensus to encourage the use of contraceptives," Tucker adds (Tucker, Baltimore Sun, 11/27).
  
  
• Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg: Although House and Senate committee chairs with oversight of HHS "can't scuttle Keroack's appointment, and they can't fire him," they "can make him follow the law," columnist Carlson writes in a Bloomberg opinion piece. "That may sound like a given, though it wasn't when Republicans were in charge," Carlson writes, adding, "That was one of the best reasons for voting them out" (Carlson, Bloomberg, 11/27).
  
  
• Lianne Cook and Lynda Sampson, Boston Globe: Keroack's appointment illustrates that "the Bush administration is not committed to reducing unintended pregnancies and abortions," Cook and Sampson, co-chairs of the Massachusetts Family Planning Association, write in a Globe letter to the editor. "We have successfully fought moves to limit our ability to provide the greatest access to our services, but we have never had our future direction in the hands of a blatant opponent of family planning and a proponent of abstinence only until marriage," the authors write (Cook/Sampson, Boston Globe, 11/23).
  
  
• R.T. Neary, Boston Globe: Keroack has "stressed ... hardly radical" ideas, such as the "emptiness of the 1960s views on which he was raised and the need to respect one's own body and that of others," Neary, former president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, writes in a Globe letter to the editor. According to Neary, Keroack also has "stressed the undeniable bond of a mother with her child in utero and how 75% to 90% of aborted fetuses would have seen the light of day if mothers were allowed to view the ultrasound of the new offspring" (Neary, Boston Globe, 11/23).
  
  
• Laura Scott, Kansas City Star: Keroack's appointment "follows a long history of misguided Bush moves on" family planning, and the Bush administration is "either confused on the issue of family planning and its role in preventing abortion, or it is purposely pandering to a narrow right-wing constituency," columnist Scott writes in a Star opinion piece. She adds, "Either way, Bush is out of step with most of the country" (Scott, Kansas City Star, 11/27).
  
  
• Lillian Tamayo, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Keroack's ideologically based 'medicine' of withholding information and contraception from women is yet another example of this administration's willingness to promote politics over sound science," Tamayo, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Miami, Palm Beach and Treasure Coast, writes in a Sun-Sentinel opinion piece. Tamayo concludes that Keroack's appointment "will be a disaster for women in Florida and the nation" (Tamayo, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 11/24).