Poor Mojo Newswire

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 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. His 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.

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.

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.