Women's health advocates and members of Congress joined together this week to denounce Bush's appointment of anti-choice hardliner Susan Orr to oversee federal family planning programs as the deputy assistant secretary for population affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services. Orr is viewed as unqualified to oversee an office she believes plays no necessary role.
According to a press release by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Patty Murray (D-WA), along with Congresswomen Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Diana DeGette (D-CO), joined Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) President Cecile Richards and Mary Jane Gallagher from the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) to announce their opposition to Orr's appointment.
These leaders called on Bush to withdraw Orr and replace her "with someone qualified and committed to family planning." Orr's appointment, said the women's health advocates, is a politically charged statement not an effort to put the best qualified person to head an office that so dramatically affects women's health.
Planned Parenthood's Cecile Richards said, “Appointing Susan Orr to head the nation’s family planning program is like choosing a police chief who doesn’t believe in fighting crime. This appointment is a nightmare for the 98 percent of women who use birth control at some point in their lives, as well as for their families.”
Prior to her political appointments, Orr was a senior director for marriage and family care at the ultra right, anti-choice and homophobic Family Research Council. While in this role, Orr described contraceptives as medically unnecessary and praised the administration's decision to eliminate provision for contraceptives under the federal employees’ health insurance.
Presidential hopeful Sen. Clinton stated, "This appointment sends a message to women across this country: ideology trumps women's health in the Bush administration. That's why I am calling on the Bush administration to withdraw this nomination. The American people deserve a qualified public health expert who will serve women's health instead of serving an ideological and political agenda."
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“This is an Alice in Wonderland moment where everything is topsy-turvy," added Rep. DeGette. "You have an individual appointed to a position who oversees birth control who opposes federal involvement in birth control. This is a critical position that could influence pregnancy prevention and contraception."
Mary Jane Gallagher (NFPRHA) said, “We need family planning services like comprehensive sex education, counseling, std and cancer screenings as well as access to contraception. Low-income and uninsured men and women deserve to have Title X administered by someone who agrees that all these things are important to ensure that families are well prepared to have children.”
The office Orr would direct oversees Title X, the nation's family planning program, which provides high-quality family planning and preventive health care services to more than five million low-income individuals annually, helping prevent more than one million unintended pregnancies each year.
