The new Democratic Congress is set to address the divisive issue of abortion next week with a bipartisan bill aimed at reducing the number of abortions by reducing the number of unintended pregnancies.
But, of course, the crazed Bush Administration has its own plan, or obstacle, compliments of the divider not a uniter, himself.
Ellen Goodman has the details:
Roadblock to abortion compromise
It's not an accident that one of the first bills in the Senate with a new Democratic majority was the Prevention First Act, a wide-ranging family-planning initiative. Rep. Louise Slaughter will follow next week with a similar bill described in one mouthful as a "bipartisan, bicameral, pro-choice, pro-life innovative approach to reducing unintended pregnancies." Then, Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Tim Ryan, a pro-choice/pro-life duo, will reintroduce an omnibus family-planning and family-support bill with the lumbering title, "The Reducing the Need for Abortions and Supporting Parents Act."
But there is a roadblock to this common ground. The man overseeing it is Eric Keroack, the brand new head of the Office of Population Affairs. Keroack has, to put it mildly, marched to a different drummer. One heard more often in the March for Life.
As Cecile Richards, head of Planned Parenthood, says, "You have to search far and wide to find a doctor who opposes family planning to run the nation's family-planning program." This White House found one. The president picked Keroack just weeks after the election delivered anti-choice defeats. "He didn't get the memo," says Nancy Keenan, head of NARAL Pro-Choice America. .
His appointment has produced a furor that has yet to diminish. Or to succeed. The Department of Health and Human Services has wanly defended Keroack, saying he'd actually prescribed birth control in his private practice. By now we've gotten used to ideologues imitating scientists, whether the subject is global warming or evolution. We've gotten used to appointed foxes guarding assorted henhouses.
But on this 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, most Americans have wearily come to agree on the best way to reduce abortions. Prevention First? Not when the president has handed the deed for common ground to the Count of Oxytocin. [via]
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Bush Pro Choice Eric Keroack Roe v. Wade Reproductive Rights Abortion Feminism Gender Politics News Democratic Congress
