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New Pro-life Appointment to Control US "Family Planning" and Title X Funding Spigot for Abortion Clinics

By Peter J. Smith

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 17, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Bush Administration has appointed another advocate of abstinence education and pro-life opponent of contraceptive "family planning" to oversee the federal department that funds "family planning" services, especially Title X funds that prop up the income of abortion clinics.

On Monday, President Bush appointed Dr. Susan Orr, a former official with the pro-life Family Research Council, as acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Dr. Orr will have power over $283 million Title X funds that the federal government distributes to 4,500 clinics across the country - including most abortion clinics - of which an estimated $50-60 million goes directly to Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States.

Dr. Orr's appointment has pro-contraception "family planning" and abortion advocates up in arms, especially the National Abortion Federation, which attacked Dr. Orr for her strong record of pro-life opposition to funding contraception programs and promotion of abstinence-until-marriage sex education.

In a 2000 Weekly Standard article, Dr. Orr criticized plans to require health insurance plans to cover contraceptives saying any such scheme would make "everyone collaborators with the culture of death."

In 2001 Dr. Orr advocated a Bush Administration proposal to "stop requiring all health insurance plans for federal employees to include contraception," Dr. Orr told the Washington Post back then, "We're quite pleased, because fertility is not a disease. It's not a medical necessity that you have [contraception]."

Dr. Orr has also written a book called "Real Women Stay Married," in which she says women should "think about focusing our eyes, not upon ourselves, but upon the families we form through marriage."

Before joining the Bush Administration, Dr. Orr previously served as the Senior Director for Marriage and Family Care at the Family Research Council (FRC). She is also a board member of Teen Choice, a nonprofit organization that encourages teenagers to practice abstinence before marriage.

Dr. Orr replaces Dr. Eric Keroack, who stepped down in March. Dr. Keroack also opposed encouraging women to take contraception calling it "demeaning to women." Dr. Keroack also promoted abstinence-only education and warned that multiple sexual partners before marriage creates chemical bonds that may act as a physiological obstacle to a satisfying marriage.

The position does not require Senate confirmation, which means Dr. Orr will be able to begin her job immediately without any interference from the Democrat-controlled US Senate.

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