#205: Eric Keroack

Eric Keroack used to be medical director for A Woman's Concern, a nonprofit group based in Dorchester, Mass. The name alone may not immediately give it away, perhaps, but the name combined with the fact that Keroack is listed in our Encyclopedia probably will. It is, in any case, a Christian pregnancy-counseling organization that regards the distribution of contraceptives as "demeaning to women." (which apparently follows from “it’s unbiblical” and the fact that they have no clue what “demeaning” means anyway). Keroack also claimed that “PRE-MARITAL SEX is really MODERN GERM WARFARE” (yep, with the random capitalization). Though Keroack has a medical education, his only “scientific” evidence for his claims seem to be insane rants by the well-known crackpot Leslee Unruh (who will be covered later).

Then Keroack was – not really unexpectedly – appointed deputy assistant secretary for population affairs by G.W. Bush, i.e. chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services (some details here). Which means, for instance, that he was in charge of “providing contraceptive supplies to millions of families”. Yes, that’s the level of insanity here.

Fortunately he had to step down after a few months in service due to an ongoing matter he had with The Massachusets Office of Health and Human Services.

Diagnosis: Taliban-style fundie with credentials but a tenuous grasp on sanity and reality if it doesn’t fit his preconceptions. He may currently not be in a position as influential as the one he was in five years ago, but I wouldn’t count him out. He seems pretty zealous.