Quote:
Dear Dr. Eric Keroack,
I have some concerns to raise regarding your position as head of the Title X family-planning program as well as your previous actions.
With your position as a medical director, obstetrician/gynecologist, and now overseer of the aforementioned program, I am disturbed by the information you have been providing for your audiences. First, you argue that any sexual behavior differing from the previously accepted standard of abstinence until marriage as “degrading to women, demeaning of human sexuality, and averse to human health and happiness.” This appears to be little more than a personal belief. While it is perfectly fine to believe as one wishes, to use that belief as information to provide to the public without proper support is disturbing.
Second, you claim that access to contraception encourages pre- and extramarital sex as well as abortion. This is a common misconception disproven by the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
There were two claims made by you that I found the most disturbing. Your first claim was that abortion can increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer. However, studies by the New England Journal of Medicine, The American Cancer Society, and WebMD have disproven this claim and even suggest the opposite.
Your second more disturbing argument was that premarital sex leads to lowered levels of oxytocin and chronic emotional pain. To be honest, I don’t understand this claim at all. There is no biological difference between pre- and post-marital sex, as marriage is a legal, manmade institution. The human body cannot distinguish between pre- and post-marital sex. Your study cites research on prairie voles, but this research cannot apply here. The human mind is much more complex than that of a prairie vole. You mention oxytocin levels, but there has been no discovered link between that and happiness in marriage. Studies on the subject have produced conflicting results.
You are more than entitled to your personal beliefs. This is not what I am arguing. I mean to say that one has certain responsibilities while maintaining a position in government and a position as a medical director. You have provided information to your target audiences that has been disproven by other studies, and this raises my concern as well as the concern of many others. Please consider my request to replace the information that you have previously provided. This is all that I ask.
Sincerely,
(Witholding my name)
I have some concerns to raise regarding your position as head of the Title X family-planning program as well as your previous actions.
With your position as a medical director, obstetrician/gynecologist, and now overseer of the aforementioned program, I am disturbed by the information you have been providing for your audiences. First, you argue that any sexual behavior differing from the previously accepted standard of abstinence until marriage as “degrading to women, demeaning of human sexuality, and averse to human health and happiness.” This appears to be little more than a personal belief. While it is perfectly fine to believe as one wishes, to use that belief as information to provide to the public without proper support is disturbing.
Second, you claim that access to contraception encourages pre- and extramarital sex as well as abortion. This is a common misconception disproven by the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
There were two claims made by you that I found the most disturbing. Your first claim was that abortion can increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer. However, studies by the New England Journal of Medicine, The American Cancer Society, and WebMD have disproven this claim and even suggest the opposite.
Your second more disturbing argument was that premarital sex leads to lowered levels of oxytocin and chronic emotional pain. To be honest, I don’t understand this claim at all. There is no biological difference between pre- and post-marital sex, as marriage is a legal, manmade institution. The human body cannot distinguish between pre- and post-marital sex. Your study cites research on prairie voles, but this research cannot apply here. The human mind is much more complex than that of a prairie vole. You mention oxytocin levels, but there has been no discovered link between that and happiness in marriage. Studies on the subject have produced conflicting results.
You are more than entitled to your personal beliefs. This is not what I am arguing. I mean to say that one has certain responsibilities while maintaining a position in government and a position as a medical director. You have provided information to your target audiences that has been disproven by other studies, and this raises my concern as well as the concern of many others. Please consider my request to replace the information that you have previously provided. This is all that I ask.
Sincerely,
(Witholding my name)
I doubt this'll do any good, but it's worth a shot and I'm interested to see what response I'll get.
