It gets me every time: some fool spouting off — in a more or less straighforward manner — about how sexuality and its myriad expressions must be controlled. As PZ Myers reports, Bush “is appointing a certifiable kook to run the federal program that oversees family planning and reproductive health”. This particular cert-k is one Dr. Eric Keroack, an anti-choice, anti-sex bug who has now been appointed by Bush “to oversee Title X funding—the only federal program devoted entirely to family planning and reproductive health”.

The apparent bee in the bonnet of this mad-as-a-hatter doctor is oxytocin, a chemical that is

released during positive social interaction, massage, hugs, “trust” encounters, and sexual intercourse. “It promotes bonding by reducing fear and anxiety in social settings, increasing trust and trustworthiness, reducing stress and pain, and decreasing social aggression,” he said.

The erstwhile doctor claims, in a nutshell, that pretty much only monogamous, married couples are safe from depleting oxytocin levels to the point where they “diminish the power of oxytocin to maintain a permanent bond with an individual”. Never mind that his science is flawed — insofar as it is laughably nonexistent — what is clear is that this idiot has an agenda that is plainly at odds with the position for which he has been appointed. Prof. Myers has already more than adequately laid into the unsoundness of Keroack’s vapid arguments, effectively razing them. What I want to say here has to do with the ethical issues.

Again and again, thanks to the BushCo Pro-Faith Initiative®, we have seen these unsavory religious types of people slipped into positions of governmental authority. Like breeds like. Whether it’s ID/creationism or anti-choice/anti-sex proponents we’re talking about, what remains constant is the religious — specifically, or especially, the evangelical and fundamentalist varieties — bent. Bush keeps trying to ensure that his legacy is a (rather narrowly defined) religious one. Does that not seem problematic in light of the ostensibly non-religious nature of the U.S. government? And isn’t it even more problematic, where the sex lives of human beings are concerned, when such a pinheaded “pro-abstinence” evangelizer who sides with the religious right, is placed in charge of family planning and reproductive health — when it has been shown that “abstinence-only” and similarly unrealistic programs don’t even work?

And Keroack is the medical director of an anti-choice “crisis pregnancy center”, A Woman’s Concern, for crying out loud.

It’s easy to understand: appointing Eric Keroack into any position of authority is a mistake, but appointing him to oversee Title X funding is downright unethical, tantamount to appointing a zealous and hinky furrier as “caretaker for America’s furry animals”. He is simply not fit for the position, in the same way that Bush is not fit to be the POTUS. But of course it’s obvious that Keroack is exactly right for the job so far as Bush is concerned. The doctor oozes that brand of underhanded moralism injected so well by Bush and his religious backers into the mainstream of American politics. He pretends to be an actual scientist when in reality he’s a prude in disguise, a mostly-undercover prig with some power and authority. (Cripes! — but Bush has promoted a lot of them!) And it’s all, in the end, in the name and to the glory of some crushingly dense form of repressive morality, the “necessity” of which is endlessly touted to high heaven (as it were) by a bunch of sexually repressed (undeveloped? malformed? immature?), power-hungry, god-deluded herd animals with a perverse “Father”/penis fixation and ugly self-esteem issues… to mention but a few of their common, uncouth traits.

Understand that it is not healthy, responsible sexual activity that Keroack and his ilk are promoting. Sex for sex’s sake is unwholesome in their book, a hedonistic and sinful flight from what they perceive as the “real purpose” of sex. What they are promoting is the idea that sex ought only to exist for “married couples” who share in “God’s plan”, which, so far as I can tell, involves procreating for the sole purpose of increasing the numbers of people just like them: anti-science, anti-evolution, anti-choice, pro-war, pro-death-penalty, pro-grammed, and “Christian”. And although I don’t doubt that some among them would disagree with my list to some degree or on some point, I assert that they are nonetheless subservient to the heirarchy of those powers who promote them all.

So, you see, the real bee in the bonnet of this mad-as-a-hatter doctor is not oxytocin, it’s the freedom to have sex with whomever you’d like to have sex with (assuming a mature, consensual experience) that vexes him and irritates his moral compass. So just who the hell is he to have authority over such an issue? He’s certainly not the person any sane, rational person would appoint to oversee Title X funding:

The Title X program is the only Federal program devoted solely to the provision of family planning and reproductive health care. The program is designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons. A broad range of effective and acceptable family planning methods and related preventive health services are available on a voluntary and confidential basis. In addition to contraceptive services and related counseling, Title X supported clinics also provide a number of preventive health services such as: patient education and counseling; breast and pelvic examinations; cervical cancer, STD and HIV screenings; and pregnancy diagnosis and counseling. For many clients, Title X clinics provide the only continuing source of health care and health education.

Do you see? The man will, without a doubt, do his damnedest to subvert and undercut efforts to educate and inform, without a religio-moral bias, those who seek out the answers to their questions about sex-related matters from Title X clinics, and by doing so he will cause unconscionable harm to countless individuals who depend on the assistance of educated professionals — people working for the seekers’ benefit without some agenda that transcends any seeker’s needs as an individual human being.

I urge you to write to your elected representatives and tell them that Dr. Eric Keroack is not merely a bad choice, he is a completely and irrefutably unethical choice for overseeing Title X funding. Also:

The public can file a complaint against him with the American Board of Obsetrics/Gynecology, where he is certified, and the Massachusetts Board of Medicine, where he is licensed. You can reach each at: http://www.abog.org/about/contact.html http://www.massmedboard.org/consumer/complaint.shtm

Thanks to Talk To Action for the two above quoted links.