Bush's Family Planning Appointee Worked for Anti-Contraception Group

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has appointed a new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who worked at a Christian pregnancy counseling organization that regards the distribution of contraceptives as "demeaning to women."

Eric Keroack, who is the medical director for A Woman's Concern, a nonprofit group based in Dorchester, Mass., will become deputy assistant secretary for population affairs in the next two weeks, department spokeswoman Christina Pearson said yesterday.

Mr. Keroack, an obstetrician-gynecologist, will advise Secretary Mike Leavitt on matters such as reproductive health and adolescent pregnancy. He will oversee $283 million in annual family-planning grants that, according to HHS, are "designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons."

The appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, was the latest provocative personnel move by the White House since Democrats won control of Congress in this month's midterm elections. President Bush last week pushed the Senate to confirm John Bolton as ambassador to the United States and this week renominated six appellate-court nominees who have previously been blocked by lawmakers. Democrats complain those moves belie Mr. Bush's post-election promises of bipartisanship.

The Keroack appointment angered many family-planning advocates, who noted that A Woman's Concern supports sexual abstinence until marriage, opposes contraception and does not distribute information promoting birth control at its six pregnancy service centers in eastern Massachusetts.

"A Woman's Concern is persuaded that the crass commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness," the group's Web site says.

Mr. Keroack was traveling and could not be reached for comment. John Agwunobi, assistant secretary for health, said Mr. Keroack "is highly qualified and a well-respected physician ... working primarily with women and girls in crisis."