Dr. W. David Hager: Scary Fundie to Head (FDA) Reproductive Health

[Kathy in Cambridge]

Drugs Advisory Committee.

Drugs Advisory Committee.

This is an email from a friend of mine who is a doctor. Please write the White House, your Senators and Congresspeople to keep this twisted fuck out of the FDA. The fact that Congress doesn't have to approve this position is frightening.

Quote: "Dr. Hager's views of reproductive health care are far outside the mainstream for reproductive technology. Dr. Hager is a practicing OB/GYN who describes himself as "pro-life" and refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women. Hager is the author of "As Jesus Cared for Women: Restoring Women Then and Now." The book blends biblical accounts of Christ healing women with case studies from Hager's practice."

Mods: this is an email and not from a published article.

--------------------------------------

President Bush has announced his plan to select Dr. W. David Hager to head up the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. The committee has not met for more than two years, during which time its charter lapsed. As a result, the Bush Administration is tasked with filling all eleven positions with new members. This position does not require Congressional approval.
>
>The FDA's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee makes crucial
>decisions on matters relating to drugs used in the practice of obstetrics,
>gynecology and related specialties, including hormone therapy,
>contraception, treatment for infertility, and medical alternatives to
>surgical procedures for sterilization and pregnancy termination.
>
>Dr. Hager's views of reproductive health care are far outside the
>mainstream for reproductive technology. Dr. Hager is a practicing OB/GYN who
>describes himself as "pro-life" and refuses to prescribe contraceptives to
>unmarried women. Hager is the author of "As Jesus Cared for Women: Restoring
>Women Then and Now." The book blends biblical accounts of Christ healing
>women with case studies from Hager's practice.
>
>In the book Dr. Hager wrote with his wife, entitled "Stress and the
>Woman's Body," he suggests that women who suffer from premenstrual syndrome
>should seek help from reading the bible and praying. As an editor and
>contributing author of "The Reproduction Revolution: A Christian Appraisal of
>Sexuality Reproductive Technologies and the Family," Dr. Hager appears to have
>endorsed the medically inaccurate assertion that the common birth
>control pill is an abortifacient.
>
>Hager's mission is religiously motivated. He has an ardent interest in
>revoking approval for mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486) as a safe
>and early form of medical abortion. Hagar recently assisted the Christian
>Medical Association in a "citizen's petition" which calls upon the FDA
>to revoke its approval of mifepristone in the name of women's health.
>
>Hager's desire to overturn mifepristone's approval on religious grounds
>rather than scientific merit would halt the development of mifepristone
>as a treatment for numerous medical conditions disproportionately affecting
>women, including breast cancer, uterine cancer, uterine fibroid tumors,
>psychotic depression, bipolar depression and Cushing's syndrome.
>
>Women rely on the FDA to ensure their access to safe and effective drugs
>for reproductive health care including products that prevent pregnancy. For
>some women, such as those with certain types of diabetes and those undergoing
>treatment for cancer, pregnancy can be a life-threatening condition. We
>are concerned that Dr. Hager's strong religious beliefs may color his
>assessment of technologies that are necessary to protect women's lives or to
>preserve and promote women's health.
>
>Hager's track record of using religious beliefs to guide his medical
>decision-making makes him a dangerous and inappropriate candidate to
>serve as chair of this committee. Critical drug public policy and research
>must not be held hostage by antiabortion politics. Members of this important
>panel should be appointed on the basis of science and medicine, rather
>than politics and religion. American women deserve no less.
>
>
>WHAT CAN YOU DO?
>
>1. SEND THIS TO EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW WHO IS CONCERNED ABOUT WOMEN'S
>RIGHTS.
>
>2. OPPOSE THE PLACEMENT OF THIS MAN BY CONTACTING THE WHITE HOUSE AND
>TELL THEM HE IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE ON ANY LEVEL.
>
>Please email President Bush at:
>[e-mail]
>and say:
>"I oppose the appointment of Dr. W. David Hager to the FDA Reproductive
>Health Drugs Advisory Committee. Mixing religion and medicine is
>unacceptable in a policy-making position. Using the FDA to promote a
>political agenda is inappropriate and seriously threatens women's
>health."

[hlthe2b]

1. While I agree that this idiot has no place in FDA: how do you think

writing to complain to the administration ([e-mail]) is going to prevent his appointment-- if anything, I'd guess he'd be appointed even sooner (Bush: "who cares what you think" pResidency)...


I think we better find another way to fight the appointment.

[Scairp]

2. NARAL

I advise looking at their website to see how they are fighting this appointment. The guy is a fanatic and is the last kind of doctor we need in this position.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. I can imagine his first Agency memo: no baby-killing pills for sluts.

I wish this adminstration would make an attempt to respect the laws on the books . . .

[Sugarbleus]

4. David Hager, James Dobson, PromiseKeepers, and Bush..OMG!

The connections between this president and the extreme right wing christian agenda are very startling. I've been doing some reading in other sites about this "fundamentalist" movement. There are soooooo many ministers, priests, congressmen, senators, and other leaders involved in all sorts of committees and think tanks desiring to force people into conforming to a certain way of life--a strick one world religion as it were. It is ASTOUNDING that secular republicans and gentle christians don't wake up and smell the brimstone.!!

years ago, this country was very interested in ZERO POPULATION growth; with the repugs it was easy to say yes when it came to administering the birth control to the women of "color".
What hypocrites, what snakes. GET THEM OUT OF OFFICE QUICK.

[Oilwellian]

5. This email's been floating around for a while

And each time I debunk it. :D

For Immediate Release
Contact: Jennifer Brindise [phone]
January 2, 2003
Society Applauds FDA's Choice of Leadership for Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Panel
New FDA Committee Chair Member of Society's Board

Washington, D.C. - The Society for Women's Health Research praises the Food and Drug Administration's recent leadership selection to its Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs.

Linda C. Giudice, M.D., Ph.D., chief of reproductive endocrinology and infertility in the department of gynecology and obstetrics at Stanford University Medical Center, was named chair of the committee in late December.

"The Society is encouraged by the FDA's choice of a leader who has outstanding medical, research and academic credentials, and who brings both scientific objectivity and concern for the welfare of all women to the position," said Roberta Biegel, government relations director of the Society, which recommended Giudice to the FDA.

http://www.womens-health.org/0javascripts/dropinnav.htm?/press/Releases/giudice.htm