Saturday, November 18, 2006

Bush appoints pro-life doctor to post

According to this CWN article President Bush has appointed a doctor with strong ties to the pro-life movement as the assistant secretary of Health and Human Service. In this post Dr. Eric Keroak will be responsible for supervising the disbursement of $283 million in federal grant money.

Prior to his appointment, Dr. Keroack had served as a medical director for crisis-pregnancy centers operated by A Women's Concern, a Massachusetts non-profit group that operates several crisis-pregnancy centers in the Boston area. The group-- which has won state and federal grants for abstinence education-- takes a firm stand against family-planning programs that encourage contraceptive use.
It may just possibly be that President Bush has heard the message that came from his famous "values voters" in this last election, that if he won't push forward those values he risks their support. Perhaps this is the first positive fruits of what was an absolutely disastrous election for pro-life supporters. It may take a while, but I expect to see the leading Democrats attempt to attach anti-life riders and amendments to just about any bill that comes through, particularly ones like the annual omnibus budget which the president is nearly forced to sign. This may well be the most corrosive two years of politics we have seen in a long time. Keep your hats on folks.