Eric Keroack

Dr. Eric J. Keroack (1960 – April 4, 2008)[1] was an American Obstetrician-Gynecologist.[2] He worked briefly in a pregnancy-related program at the United States Department of Health and Human Services during 2006–2007.

Eric Keroack
BornFebruary 16 1960
Died2008 (aged 47–48)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materTufts University School of Medicine, M.D.
OccupationDeputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs at the United States Department of Health and Human Services

Education

Keroack was a graduate of Amherst College. He received his doctorate of medicine in 1986 from Tufts University where he was a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society and later Resident of the Year (1993). He was a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrician Gynecologists [(FACOG)], and a clinician with nearly two decades of experience serving women from diverse racial and socio-economic backgrounds.

Career

Keroack was the medical director of A Woman's Concern, a Christian nonprofit organization based in Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts. It runs six centers in the state that offer free pregnancy testing, ultrasounds and counseling and works to "help women escape the temptation and violence of abortion." Its crisis pregnancy centers do not sell abortion services and do not prescribe or distribute birth control.

In late 2006, he was named as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, the office that oversees federally funded teenage pregnancy, family planning, and abstinence programs.[3] The nomination of Keroack, an anti-contraceptive advocate, to a position responsible for ensuring low-income women get access to birth control was controversial.[4][5][6][7] Critics cited Keroack's opposition to legalized abortion without noting that the doctor had himself once performed abortions and provided abortifacients before later reversing his stance on legalized abortion, as did (among others) Bernard Nathanson, MD, an early founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL). Cf. Nathanson, Bernard. Aborting America. Double Day. Garden City, NY: 1979. ISBN 038514461X.[8] Supporters interviewed by Boston Globe writers Ala Wirzbicki and Bryan Bender noted Keroack's medical acumen and highly relevant experience serving pregnant and parenting women in Boston's inner city: Cf. "Critics protest health post pick: President resolute; Mass. physician's theories criticized. By staff writers Alan Wirzbicki and Bryan Bender, The Boston Globe, November 18, 2006.


The Massachusetts native had attracted controversy before, after making the claim that sex with multiple partners hurts women's ability to bond by altering their brain chemistry.[9] He said that premarital sex suppresses the hormone oxytocin, thereby impairing people's ability to forge successful long-term relationships.[10] Additional research in the decade following Keroack's HHS appointment increasingly supports his view.[11][12]

In January 2007, Keroack received "two formal warnings from the Massachusetts board of medicine ordering him to refrain from prescribing drugs to people who are not his patients and from providing mental health counseling without proper training."[13] In March 2007 Keroack resigned his position at HHS.[14]

Death

Keroack died in 2008, leaving behind his daughter, elderly parents, and 5 siblings, four of whom are also physicians.

References
  1. "Class of 1982 - In Memory". Amherst College Alumni. Amherst College. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  2. Health Grades Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, doctor profile for Dr. Eric Keroack
  3. "Contraception, abortion foe to head family-planning office". Associated Press. November 17, 2006. Archived from the original on November 20, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-22.
  4. Jose, Katharine (November 17, 2006). "Bush's Latest Appointment". The Huffington Post.
  5. "The Family Un-Planner". slate.com. November 21, 2006.
  6. "A bad choice for families". San Francisco Chronicle. November 24, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-24.
  7. "Sack that Quack Keroack: Reproductive Rights Community Steps up Fight to Oust Anti-Abortion Appointee". The Indypendent. January 10, 2007.
  8. Nathanson, Bernard N.; Ostling, Richard N. (1979). Aborting America. ISBN 9780385144612. LCCN 79007069.
  9. "Too much sex? Controversy surrounds Bush appointee". SooToday.com. November 20, 2006.
  10. Stacy Schiff (January 20, 2007). "Sex and the Single-Minded". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-01-21.
  11. Feldman, Ruth (2012). "Oxytocin and social affiliation in humans". Hormones and Behavior. 61 (3): 380–91. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2012.01.008. PMID 22285934. S2CID 683076.
  12. Rilling, James K; Demarco, Ashley C; Hackett, Patrick D; Chen, Xu; Gautam, Pritam; Stair, Sabrina; Haroon, Ebrahim; Thompson, Richmond; Ditzen, Beate; Patel, Rajan; Pagnoni, Giuseppe (2014). "Sex differences in the neural and behavioral response to intranasal oxytocin and vasopressin during human social interaction". Psychoneuroendocrinology. 39: 237–48. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.09.022. PMC 3842401. PMID 24157401.
  13. Andrea Estes (2007-04-07). "Doctor who quit US post was warned by state Medical board cited prescriptions". Boston Globe.
  14. The Associated Press (2007-03-29). "U.S. family planning head resigns after state agency acts against him". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
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