Another birth control foe to head major federal family planing program

Once again, the nation's birth control czar is anti-birth control.

Emily Douglas of RHRealityCheck reports that Susan Orr, Ph.D. has been named the new acting deputy assistant secretary for the Office for Population Affairs.

Prior to taking the job with OPA, Orr served as the head of the Children's Bureau in the Administration on Children, Youth and Families in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Before she joined George W. Bush's DHHS, Orr was the senior director for marriage and family care at the ultra-conservative Family Research Council. While at FRC Orr co-wrote a booklet entitled "Building the Culture of Life."

Here's what Orr had to say about a bill that would have made contraception a mandatory part of health insurance:

"The mask of choice is falling off," says Susan Orr, a policy expert with the Family Research Council.  "It's not about choice.  It's not about health care.  It's about making everyone collaborators with the culture of death." [Weekly Standard, 10/2/2002, p17.]

Orr's resume also includes a stint as an adjunct professor at Pat Robertson's Regent University.

She also worked for the libertarian Reason Public Policy Institute, where she was the project director for a 1998 study entitled Blueprint for the Privatization of Child Welfare. Her essay Real Women Stay Married was published in Washington Watch in 2000.

Emily Douglas of RHRC writes:

In 2001, when President Bush proposed eliminating the requirement that federal employees' health insurance offer a range of options for birth control coverage, Dr. Orr, then the senior director for marriage and families at the Family Research Council, told the Washington Post, "We're quite pleased because fertility is not a disease. It's not a medical necessity that you have [contraception]."

According to People for the American Way's eyewitness report of the 2001 CPAC Conference...

Dr. Susan Orr of the Family Research Council cheered President Bush's revocation of the "Mexico City Policy" as proof that he is pro-life "in his heart" and urged that his administration move quickly to revoke approval for RU-486 and enforce O.S.H.A. standards in abortion clinics.

Last year, Orr received an alumni award from her alma mater, the University of Dallas. Here's an excerpt from the official press release, praising Orr for her efforts on behalf of Teen Choice, a "pro-abstinence nonprofit organization":

Orr has been Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau in the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since 2001. At the helm of the oldest federal agency focused on the welfare of children, Orr oversees a budget of $8 billion. Orr combines her career as an advocate for foster care and free adoption with community service efforts as a member of the board of directors for Teen Choice, a pro-abstinence nonprofit organization. [10/28/05]

I'm trying to determine whether Teen Choice of DC is the same organization as ULTRA Teen Choice. Here's the ULTRA Teen Choice website--the Guard Your Diamond art is quite something...

This isn't the first time the Bush administration has installed a vocal opponent of birth control as the nation's birth control czar. This time, they've gone one better, choosing a person who opposes government funding in general and birth control in particular.

A few months ago, Larisa Alexandrovna and I exposed some of the dubious professional qualifications of the last confirmed Deputy Assistant Secretary, Dr. Eric Keroack.   

Ostensibly, Keroack's main qualification for managing the $283 million Title X women's health care program was his two decades of experience as OB-GYN.

It was later learned that he let his specialty certification lapse without informing his bosses at Health and Human Services. At the time of his confirmation, he was also under investigation by the Massachusetts medical licensing authorities, including allegations of Medicaid fraud. Finally, documents obtained by Raw Story show that Keroack was unable to prove that he completed the continuing medical education required to keep his license in MA.

In fact, Keroack was probably chosen to run Title X because of his bone fides in the anti-choice community. He pioneered the use of medically unnecessary ultrasounds at phony reproductive health clinics. He also traveled the nation, lecturing about how sexually promiscuous women fry their brains with their own hormones, illustrating his points with slides of Looney-Tunes characters.

My Raw Story colleague Jason Rhyne also has a piece about Susan Orr today.

Another interesting factoid: Orr is the author of Jerusalem and Athens: Reason and Revelation in the Work of Leo Strauss, published in 1995 by Rowman and Littlefield. She also wrote a chapter on the implications of Straussian philosophy for welfare policy.

Comments

[mudkitty]

LB - you always know how to get my blood boiling in the morning! These people are not conservative. They are reactionary!

[parse]

There is apparently a difference between the Office of Population Affairs and the Office of Family Planning. You might want to check the headline for accuracy.

Also, while Orr may be "anti-birth control," I didn't see anything in your post that demonstrates it. She's quite clearly opposed to government funding of contraceptives for birth control, and obviously favors abstinence as the best method of birth control, at least for teenagers--both positions relevant to her choice as head of the OPA. But can you tell me what you thinks justifies the description of "anti-birth control" or "birth control opponent"?

Finally, the Office of Population Affairs is apparently "provides resources and policy advice on population, family planning, reproductive health, and adolescent pregnancy issues." Calling the head of this office the "birth control czar" makes for a more dramatic criticism of the appointment, but I'm not sure it's accurate. (I'm even less sure that I'm comfortable with the idea that there should be a federal birth control czar--I think I'd like my government somewhat less intrusive than that.)

[Daniel DiRito]

See a tongue-in-cheek list of the top ten reasons George Bush appointed Susan Orr...here:

www.thoughttheater.com

[swampcracker]

When her anti-birth control stance was bad enough, out comes that stinking boot of all neo-con thought, Leo Strauss. That explains everything.

[Margalis]

I wish I could say this surprised me, but the Bush administration is pretty consistent about putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.

[PhoenixRising]

No way. She can't be a Strauss disciple and an abstinence-only Family Research Council vet. It would be a confluence of meanness and stupidity which could reverse the Gulf Stream, like a matter-antimatter clash.

Just when I think they've nominated everyone who's unfit for public office they know, I'm surprised again.

[parse]

I'm glad to see you've edited the headline for accuracy, but I think the best practice is to acknowledge such changes in an update to the blog entry.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

The Office of Family Planning is part of the Office of Population Affairs--the headline was accurate both times. As acting deputy undersecretary Orr will head OPA and oversee the OFP. Most critically Orr will be in charge of the Title X program which is by far the largest federal family planning program and a major source of government funded birth control.

[parse]

The Office of Family Planning is part of the Office of Population Affairs--the headline was accurate both times.

The headline might be accurate if there is no head of the Office of Family Planning who reaports to the head of the Office of Population Affairs. Are you saying that is the case? If you didn't change the headline for the sake of accuracy, why did you change it?

Also, is Orr against birth control per se? There are people who want to deny access to birth control to teenagers but allow it to other people. Some are against government funding of birth control, but not against contraception. Orr seems to support the last two positions--does she go further, and oppose all use of contraception?

[Josh Jasper]

Some are against government funding of birth control, but not against contraception.

Are said people astounded when a lack of access to birth control results in an increase in abortions, unplanned pregnancies, and a cycle of poverty, or are they just incapable of noticing?

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

It's standard usage to say that the the deputy assistant secretary for population affairs runs the Office on Family Planning.

Birth-Control Foe To Run Office on Family Planning [WaPo]

It's also common to say that DASPA oversees the Office of Family Planning. It's also said that she oversees Title X. Title X is the program within the OFP that provides birth control.

I think the most interesting thing about this story is that Orr is going to be overseeing Title X, the family planning program within the OFP. So, I changed the headline to draw more attention to her oversight of that program.

We know that Orr is anti-birth control because she implied that those who provide birth control are complicit in the culture of death, see above. Furthermore Commonweal names Orr an American Catholics In the Public Square. Given the position of the Catholic Church on birth control and the "contraceptive mentality", I think it's safe to assume that Orr is anti-birth control per se as well as anti-government spending on birth control, and anti-mandatory birth control coverage for health insurers.

[parse]

It's standard usage to say that the the deputy assistant secretary for population affairs runs the Office on Family Planning.

Birth-Control Foe To Run Office on Family Planning [WaPo]

It's also common to say that DASPA oversees the Office of Family Planning

But is it common to say that the DASPA is the head of the Office of Family Planning? Is Sue Orr the head of the Office of Population affairs AND the head of the Office of Family Planning?

Lindsay, if you made an error, it was a small one. It's funny that you are so reluctant to admit that might be the case. Is there a person who is the head of the Office of Family Planning? Is that person Sue Orr?

Again, if you didn't change the headline for the sake of accuracy, why did you change it? It looks as though you've scrubbed any reference to the Office of Family Planning from the post, even though it was there previously. That seems to me to be a more serious breach than the minor error that (I think) you orignially made.

[Beccah]

Hi Lindsay, excellent job as always. I had the same problem trying to distinguish between ULTRA Teen Choice and Teen Choice. ULTRA Teen Choice is a local abstinence program in D.C. Teen Choice is a program in NYC run out of Inwood House that has an abstinence curriculum. And then I found one mention of curriculum from Teen Choice, Inc. but I couldn't find anything else about them. So what is the Teen Choice that she is on the board of? Very unclear. The whole thing is a joke.

[ripley]

favoring abstinence programs as a method of birth control is anti birth control, because there is no evidence that abstinence programs work, and usually unplanned births go up - surely the opposite of birth control.

[me]

So UTC distributes chastity belts at events with a lot of young people in attendance, right?

[cfrost]

Damn, Bush has all the luck. I turn over rocks and logs and get a few salamanders and mice, but Dubya always finds the really cool specimens.

[mudkitty]

Parse...interesting handle.

[Jesse]

A bit off the OPA topic, but still squarely in the realm of birth control issues--I'm sure by now you've read about the middle school in POrtland, MAine that will be offering birth control to its students (link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/us/18portland.html).

Birth control is a no-brainer when it comes to adults (easy access is good), but I'm having a hard time deciding how I feel about this instance--on the one hand, these are just kids; on the other, if they are having sex then of course they shouldn't get pregnant; but then again, that first side of me protests, these people are 11-13 years old! I can't decide what to think.