Note: When I first got this email I ignored I didn't pass it on because I
thought it was a joke, I hadn't heard of it in the news and he is so far out
there that I couldn't believe even Bush would do something like this. But now I
see it is very serious.

Subject: Hager FDA appointment

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, 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 prac!
tice. 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.

American women deserve no less.

There is something you can do.
1. Sign this Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/drhager/petition.html