Dr. Orr Resigns

by Ellen Newcomb, Program Assistant
National Women’s Law Center

President Bush’s appointment of Dr. Susan Orr to Assistant Deputy Secretary for Population didn’t go over too well with pro-choicers last October. We didn’t exactly break out the champagne and toast to the appointment of an anti-choice advocate too oversee Title X - the federal funding program through which more than 4 million lower-income women receive preventive care and contraceptives.

Dr. Orr, former employee of the staunchly anti-choice organization the Family Research Council, even went so far as to back President Bush’s plan to eliminate federal employees’ health insurance coverage of contraceptives and was quoted in a 2001 Washington Post article saying about the plan, “We’re quite pleased because fertility is not a disease. It’s not a medical necessity that you have contraception.”

Now, I don’t think anyone ever claimed fertility was a disease. But when 98 percent of women rely on contraceptives as a form of birth control at some point during their lifetime, it’s essential that Administration officials pay attention to making access to contraceptives affordable. Especially when you’re the one overseeing a program responsible for providing family planning services to millions of low-income women.

But today we can report some good news. After only 7 months in the position, Dr. Orr has resigned. We don’t yet know what prompted the sudden departure as the White House has not yet released a statement regarding her resignation.

What we do know is that we can’t let our guard down yet. As the Bush Administration enters into its last six months, you can bet they’ll be trying to push through some last minute regulations to restrict Title X funding and I wouldn’t be surprised if they think they can even sneak in some more anti-choice personnel appointments to key Administrative positions. 

We’ll certainly keep you updated as we hear the news. One can only hope that Bush will appoint someone to administer Title X who actually supports funding of contraceptive coverage.

And we have a message for Dr. Orr’s successor as well: we’ll be watching.

Comments

[Administrative Assistant]

Same here. Have they found a replacement for Dr. Orr?

[Rachel]

I *still* haven't seen any coverage of this in mainstream news outlets!