Eric Keroack

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

Education

Keroack was a graduate of Amherst College. He received his doctorate of medicine from Tufts University in 1986.

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 oppose contraception and do not distribute information concerning 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. The nomination of Keroack, an anti-contraceptive advocate, to a position responsible for ensuring low-income women get access to birth control was criticized.

The Massachusetts native had faced criticism before, after making the claim that sex with multiple partners hurts women's ability to bond by altering their brain chemistry. He said that premarital sex suppresses the hormone oxytocin, thereby impairing people's ability to forge successful long-term relationships.

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." In March 2007 Keroack resigned his position at HHS.

Death

Keroack died by suicide in 2008.