I started reading this at Think Progress. On October 15, 2007, President Bush appointed Susan Orr to oversee federal family planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) saying she was “highly qualified.” Before serving with HHS Orr has made some rather telling remarks.

In a 2001 article in The Washington Post, Orr applauded a Bush proposal to stop requiring all health insurance plans for federal employees to cover a broad range of birth control. “We’re quite pleased, because fertility is not a disease,” said Orr, then an official with the Family Research Council. Orr also wrote an article for Family Research Council Called “Real Women Stay Married”. In it she claimed that women should “think about focusing our eyes, not upon ourselves, but upon the families we form through marriage.” She has declared herself against taxpayers supporting birth control and in a 2000 Weekly Standard article Orr spoke out against requiring health insurance plans to cover contraceptives. “It’s not about choice. It’s not about health care. It’s about making everyone collaborators with the culture of death.”

Remember, Orr’s HHS role is not just symbolic. She will oversee a $283 million program, a $30 million program that encourages abstinence among teenagers, and HHS’s Office of Population Affairs, which funds birth control, pregnancy tests, counseling, and screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.

According to the Carpetbagger ReportOrr will have “extensive power to shape the kinds of information disseminated to millions of women, and will be able to develop new guidelines for clinics, set priorities, and determine how scarce dollars get spent.” The last thing we need is a family planning office headed by someone opposed to family planning. It doesn’t even make sense. Giving someone a job based on their political views is wrong, but seeking their religious views is just as wrong and is clearly doing damage to our country. This type of cronyism needs to end. No more litmus tests other than the right job skills for the job.