I touched on this a few days ago, but Eric Keroak, the new chief of family planning programs for the Department of Health and Human Services, is very bad news. Zuzu wrote about his unfortunate habit of copyright infringement, and the bad science he uses to defend his religiously-motivated beliefs. Feministing has more details, and Alternet gives a comprehensive review. Even the Washington Post is recognizing the controvery. Here’s the breakdown:
Keroak is the director of A Woman’s Concern, a “crisis pregnany center” in Boston. You’ll notice from the front page of the website that there’s nothing to indicate that this is an anti-choice organization; they present themselves as an organization offering “pregnancy health services,” and even reference abortion right along with adoption and parenting — as if they offer value-neutral counselling. In their “pregnancy counselling” section, they claim to offer trained doctors, nurses and peer counselors who will give women “the support and information that can help in your decision and beyond.”
And the information they offer about the importance of ultrasounds strikes me as a little bit questionable:
In addition to verifying the pregnancy test, if you are considering abortion, we can offer you a limited ultrasound to help answer the following questions.
- Is the pregnancy located where it should be (in the uterus not the tube)?
- Approximately how far along are you?
- Do we see what we would expect to see in a healthy early pregnancy since the miscarriage rate in early pregnancy is about 1 in 5?
If you discover the pregnancy is not progressing normally, you will have a miscarriage. This is important information for you to have before you make your decision.
I’ve never been pregnant and I’m not any sort of medical professional, but I’m pretty sure that, while a very early pregnancy appears to be “not progressing normally” is not good, it’s also not an absolute guarantee of a miscarriage. Color me cynical, but this seems like another ploy to try and mislead women into continuing unwanted pregnancies — if you know they’re leaning towards abortion, just tell them that their pregnancy is abnormal, and if they just wait it out, they’ll miscarry. And when they don’t miscarry and it’s too late for an abortion, well…
A Woman’s Concern tells women that “babies” feel pain as early as eight weeks into gestation. On sex, it says that:
Regardless of their spiritual beliefs, the healthiest choice for anyone is to wait until they are in a faithful, lifelong relationship to have sex. Outside of that relationship, there are risks associated with sex, including STDs, unplanned pregnancy, and intense emotions that can make it hard when the relationship ends. Without a formal commitment like marriage, relationships have some level of insecurity because either person can leave at any time. Many people decide that these risks aren’t worth it, and choose to wait.
Because there’s no such thing as “divorce.” Or “affairs.” Or STDs, unplanned pregnancy and intense emotions within marriage. Or entire classes of people who are barred from this formal commitment.
And it’s not just the website. Keroak is a regular speaker for the National Right to Life Committee, and is on the medical advisory board of Abstinence Clearinghouse, a right-wing organization that promotes abstinence-only sex education, strongly supported the South Dakota abortion ban, and opposes the HPV vaccine.
This is the man who is in charge of the reproductive health funding coming out of the Department of Health and Human Services. His decisions will determine low-income women’s access to contraception, and what public sexual health education campaigns look like. And we are all in big, big trouble
It sounds like Keroak is staying men are slutty whoring disease ridden unstable beasts that can only be considered safe if they are house broken by marriage. LOL!
Anything to up the available cannon fodder. And that is all they are doing….the rich white people will still have access to safe abortions, same as in 1920 when they flew to Cuba. (Are they starting to worry about China? Because it’s WAY too late for that.)
I just finished being pregnant (my daughter is 3 months old) and my own experience aside, this doesn’t even jive with the things I read that didn’t happen to me. I guess this is what we can expect sexual health “education” to look like in the future.
OK, let me get this straight. If God gives you a miscarriage, it’s okey-dokey. But if you have an abortion *before* that happens (when the embryo is *less* developed), it’s baaad??
Ultrasounds are *far* from super-accurate, anyway. They can tell you certain things, but cannot predict with any kind of certainty if you will miscarry…most of the time they are used to tell you that you *already have* (by showing a missing pulse or failure to grow on schedule).
How did he become an OB/Gyn?? This man needs his license revoked. I wouldn’t let him treat my houseplants.
I can tell you that my 9 week ultrasound didn’t show much (it looked like a gummy bear with a heartbeat), and certainly didn’t give me an “out of the woods” clearance. From all that I’ve read, miscarriages are not typically predicatable, and in fact, my doctor congratulated me when I hit the second trimester even though all signs up until then had been fine.
I seriously doubt any “early” ultrasounds – where I’m guessing they’re just seeing mostly tissue – could be used to determine any kind of miscarriage potential other than the most obvious. I think you’re right on the underhanded make-you-wait ploy.
I would imagine this to be just the first dart to shoot forth from Dubya’s Lame Duck gun. I wish I had more faith in the newly elected Dems to fend off the coming onslaught, but I don’t.
As an actual patient of Dr. Keroack’s. I feel I gotta chime in. So first a bit about me. I’m a very well educated ardently pro-choice bluer than blue liberal woman who also happens to be a gynecological mess. And ya know what? Dr. Keroack, through the surgeries that he has performed and the very specific BIRTH CONTROL PILLS that he has prescribed, turned my life that was once beyond hellish completely around. He has always known my political stance. He knows that I’m sexually active with someone other than my husband from whom I’m separated. And none of that has ever prevented him from treating my myriad illnesses nor treating ME with anything less than total dignity, empathy, compassion, respect and concern. And he is no less a prudish wack-job than any anti-porn feminist crusader. And if memory serves, Andrea Dworkin also had a helluva mustache. I’ll admit, I’m not his average patient. Most of his patients are poor, young and with a history of abuse by the men in their lives be it fathers, brothers, boyfriends or husbands… ya know the population of sexually scarred women living in poverty that the modern feminist movement tends to pass by. But hey, let the firestorm continue. Make it so that he personally steps down from this appointment. Cuz that way he won’t travel to DC, will instead remain in the area and continue to be the best gynecologist I’ve ever had.
My friend who slept with 20 men or more as a single- no problems, no pregnancies – and then got an STD from her lawfully wedded husband really finds this stuff a hoot. Driving on a closed course is also safer than driving on the highway, I guess, but nothing is 100% and when you think there’s nothing coming, you might be more likely to take off your seat belt, no? Unbelivable that the small government Rethugs think this is something the government needs to focus on.
Lala, it’s great that he’s a good gynecologist. But just because someone’s a good doctor doesn’t make them suited to create policy. And his publicly-given policy statements are certainly not in the mode you describe him being in as a doctor. His public policy statements sound judgemental and unwilling to give most women the same freedom he allows you.
Not that we need permission from you, but we intend to do just that. You’re welcome to him. We don’t want him.