barrykind
Advanced Member
Member # 35
|
posted
Bush's Devotion to Pro-Life Movement Questioned ... Again
Pro-Lifers Cite Gerberding Appointment as Latest Example
By Bill Fancher and Jody Brown
July 5, 2002
(AgapePress) - The appointment of Dr. Julie Gerberding as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to draw less-than-joyful reaction within the pro-life community.
The new director of the Atlanta-based CDC is a 46-year-old physician and expert in infectious disease who is thought of highly by her constituents. According to The Washington Post, Gerberding's associates describe her an articulate, "consensus-type person" with the scientific credentials and people-skills to oversee the nation's health agency. The Post also states Gerberding -- who has been an acting deputy director during the search for a new director -- is expected to have strong support among the rank-and-file at the agency because, according to an anonymous CDC scientist, the agency has traditionally preferred to have its leaders come from within.
But not everyone agrees that Gerberding is the person for the job. Michael Schwartz is vice president for government relations for Concerned Women for America. Schwartz believes Gerberding is not the person to straighten out what he calls one of the most messed-up agencies in government.
Michael Schwartz
"This is an agency that is absolutely out of control," Schwartz says. "It has become a bottomless well of funding for left-wing interest groups."
He cites many examples. The CDC has promoted a "safe-sex" condom policy, despite its own research indicating condoms do not protect individuals from sexually transmitted diseases and are only effective in preventing HIV infection five out of six times. And the agency has opposed infant HIV testing and policies that demand HIV notification.
Schwartz says Gerberding will not fix those problems that arose under the previous CDC director, Jeffrey Koplan. "The reason why Julie Gerberding is the wrong person is she has been Dr. Jeffrey Koplan's deputy director," he says. "You do not clean up an agency like this by promoting from within."
Some pro-lifers feel they were slapped in the face when the White House announced Gerberding's appointment. But Judie Brown of the American Life League was not surprised. Brown, who questioned President Bush's commitment to the pro-life cause in 1998, has never considered the president a pro-lifer.
"How do we evaluate his position when it come to defending the innocence of human beings from the moment of conception when we can't seem to pin him down on exactly what he thinks about surgical abortion?" Brown asks.
As further evidence against the pro-life commitment of the Bush Administration, Brown points out that Bush has rescinded only one of Bill Clinton's five anti-life Executive Orders, compromised on embryonic stem-cell research, and appointed a cloning supporter -- Dr. Elias Zerhouni -- to head up the National Institutes of Health. And now, she says, the White House has appointed a proponent of condom usage to head the CDC.
"Pro-lifers are called by God to serve His babies, not politicians," she says, "and if we can't get it right and if we can't make the demands that are necessary for us to make of politicians, what can we expect? We are getting what we asked for."
Brown says Bush talks a great pro-life game, but his administration is not a pro-life administration.
And Another Thing ...
Another recent incident has caused pro-lifers to question the White House's commitment to that issue -- that being the arrest of a pro-life demonstrator. In defiance of a prescribed limit, Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition was arrested for kneeling and praying outside the entrance to a downtown abortion clinic in Washington, D.C.
Mahoney's action violated an injunction issued by Attorney General John Ashcroft. "What makes this case so troubling is that the only plaintiff is [Ashcroft]," he says. "It would still be wrong if any clinic personnel or any women's group sought this -- but none have."
Mahoney says they realize that they would be laughed out of court if they tried to obtain such an injunction. Still, Ashcroft's motives are being questioned by pro-lifers, since he is a professing pro-life Christian himself.
© 2002 AgapePress all rights reserved.
E-mail this page to a friend
--------------------
The HEART of the issue is truly the issue of the HEART!
John 3:3;Mark 8:34-38;James 1:27
Posts: 3529 | From: Orange, Texas | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged | 
|
Printer-friendly view of this topic
