A sad day for women in the USA

The Washington Post reports that President Bush has appointed Eric Keroack as the new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services. Keroack, for those who aren't aware, is the director of A Woman's Concern (sounds innocent, huh?). According to the article, "A Woman's Concern supports sexual abstinence until marriage, opposes contraception and does not distribute information promoting birth control at its six centers in eastern Massachusetts."

Keroac wll oversee funds "designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons." However, his organization, A Woman's Concern, believes that "the crass commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness".

My biggest problem with the current administration and the GOP is that they try to legislate morality. If you don't think that contraception is acceptable, that's fine. Just don't force your viewpoint on everyone else. Tolerance of other people's views and beliefs is the key here.

I worry that if this trend continues, medical authority over our bodies will be given to the government. I can envision a future when this scenario is not that far-fetched: Have endometriosis or PCOS? Sorry, you can't have the medication that relieves the symptoms because it could be used as a contraceptive.

Hopefully, in 2008 we'll get a non-GOP president, or at least one who's not so swayed by the evangelical right, and this won't be as much of an issue. Luckily, 2 years isn't that much time, in government terms, to effect a lot of change.