President Bush has announced his intention to appoint
Dr. W. David Hager to head up the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA)
Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. This 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 health
care are far outside the mainstream for reproductive
technology and modern gynecological practice. 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 (causes abortion). 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 h. Dr. 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 anti-abortion 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. Below is a letter to be
sent to the White House, opposing the placement of
Hager.

Please copy all the text of this message and
paste it into a fresh email; then sign your name below
and SEND THIS TO EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW WHO IS
CONCERNED ABOUT WOMEN'S RIGHTS.
Every 100th person please forward e-mail to president@whitehouse.gov
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. Members of this important
panel should be appointed on the basis of science and
medicine, rather than politics and religion. A legacy of American
women have already sacrificed their lives for
adequate obstetric and gynocological health care and deserve no less.


1. Carl Burns, New York City
2. Paul Amaru, NY, NY
3. Marion Vrusho, Stamford, CT
4. Enid Norris, Stamford, CT
5. Joyce Wolf, Stamford, CT
6. Beth Rollins, Cos Cob, CT
7. Susan Ellis, Old Greenwich, CT
8. Faye C. Gage, Darien, CT.
9. Janet M Joseph, West Chester, PA,
10. Sea Kaplan, Wayne, PA,
11. Ann Hiller, Wayne, PA
12. Lois Morris, Ph! ila! delphia, PA
13.Lynne Poag, Shamong, NJ,
14. Melinda Mangin, Jers ey City, NJ
15.Stephani Salamea,Queens,NY
16.Gabriella F.Giresi Queens, NY
17. Maria Taormina Hicksville, NY;
18. Esta Joy Kroten; NY! C, NY;19. Jayne B. Hirsch
20. Erica Johnson
21. Teresa Solomita
22. Belinda Baer
23. Rachel Kulick, Boston, MA;
24. Abigail Ortiz, Boston Ma;
25. CelesteSchmid, Boston MA
26. Merrill Stubbs, New York, NY
27. Kimberley Roosenburg, NY, NY
28. Elizabeth Fox, NY, NY
29. Karlie Santucci, NY, NY
30. Erica Stern, NY, NY
31. Shanley Stern, NY, NY
32. Rachael Adler, NY, NY
33. Anne Klee, New Haven, CT
34. Rana Jazayerli, Arlington, VA
35. Aysha Corbett, Washington,DC
36. April Everett, Arlington, VA
37. Dr Sekai Chideya, CA
38. Ella Leers, NY, NY
39. Ari Ariel, NY, NY
40. Tri Do, MD, MPH, San Francisco, CA
41. Tonya Chaffee, MD, MPH San Francisco, CA
42. Janet Shalwitz, MD San Francisco, CA
43. Andrea Jacoby, Ph.D. San Francisco, CA
44. George Buffington, San Fran! cisco, CA
45.bBonnie Earls-Solari
46. Jody Rassell Los Angeles, CA
47. Minna Towbin Pinger, New York, NY
48. Martine Singer, Los Angeles, CA
49. Jamie Bernstein, New York, NY
50. Karen Chester, New York NY
51. Alison Ames, New York NY
52. Teri Noel Towe, New York, NY
53. Gail Scordilis, Northampton, MA
54. Jessica Gifford, Easthamton, MA
55. Jess Saalfield, Montague, MA
56. Claudine Solin, San Francisco, CA
57. Susan Neubauer, Bozeman, MT
58. E. Kelley, Bozeman MT
59. Erin Byrne, Tualatin, OR
60. Kathleen Minde RN, Portland, OR
61. Savona Cook, Eugene, OR
62. Delia Paine, Bend, OR
63. Jennifer Shontz, WA
64. Deborah Paine, Seattle, WA
65. Gloria Lamson, Port Townsend, WA
66. Gloria Paige, Seattle, WA
67. Linda Lee, Portland, OR
68. Carmen Farmer, Portland , OR
69. Margaret Jennings, Portland, OR
70. Robert Conklin, Portland, OR
71. Aphra Katzev, Portland, OR
72. Karen McCurdy, RI
73! . Jennifer Bowdoin, Providence, RI
74. Amber Fearn, E. Providence, RI
75. Karley D. Frankic, New Orleans, LA
76. JoAnn Burak, New Orleans, LA
77. Carol Wise, New orleans, LA
78. Judith H. Darsky, Larchm! ont, NY< BR>79. Julie Baird, Miami Beach, FL
80. Holly Prince, Miami, FL
81. Nancy Kreider, Oak Island, NC
82. Chris Apple, Durham, NC
83. Julie Parrish, Durham,NC
84. Christene Tashjian, Chapel Hill, NC
85. Suki Roth, Hillsborough.NC
86. Mariah Wheeler, Chapel Hill, NC
87. Betty Lou Chaika, Chapel Hill, NC
88. Roxanne Barksdale, Hillsborough, NC
89. Kimberly Thigpen Tart, Chapel Hill, NC
90. Jan Sedway, Chapel Hill, NC
91. Jill Simpson, Durham, NC
92. Jennifer Petrie, San Diego, CA
93. Mary Seger, Centerville, PA
94. Mercedes Lawry, Seattle, WA
95. Deborrah M. Tatum, Louisville,Ky

I've been trying to tell people that birth control was also endangered. I don't think anyone wanted to believe it.

They want to take away any control a woman has over her own body.

New ad campaign targets Bush record on birth control
The President vs. the Pill
by Sharon Lerner
October 12th, 2004 10:45 AM

Most concerned voters know where George Bush stands on abortion—he backs the Republican call for a constitutional amendment outlawing abortions even in cases of rape and incest. But how many people know that his interest in controlling what a woman does with her body extends to contraception? That's right, the born-again wannabe-president-again has repeatedly used his power to curb access to birth control, which some 95 percent of American women use at some point in their lives.

Now, family planning advocates are working to let voters in on the president's little-known record. Planned Parenthood is running TV ads in swing states drawing the difference between John Kerry and Bush on abortion and birth control. And NARAL Pro-Choice America has its interim president, Elizabeth Cavendish, traveling the country explaining the ways Bush has attacked contraception. "When people hear about it, they really feel convinced that Bush is a menace to our rights," says Cavendish.

A prime example is the "faith-based" health plan for federal employees unveiled late last month, which specifically excludes coverage of contraception. Tailored to fit the tenets of the Catholic Church, the new plan will deny assistance with artificial insemination, sterilization, and abortion. Though it reduces the number of procedures covered by insurance, Kay Coles James, director of the Office of Personnel Management, told The New York Times the plan gave federal employees "more opportunities to make choices."

It's worth noting that James, now part of the Bush administration, is a former spokesperson for the National Right to Life Committee.

Birth control was also front and center in Bush's recent "family priorities" campaign ad, which begins talking about "teenage abortions" and then slips into a discussion of emergency contraception, or the morning-after pill, which actually prevents pregnancy if taken up to 72 hours after unprotected sex. "Kerry even voted to allow schools to hand out the morning-after pill without parents' knowledge," an ominous voice tells viewers.

Never mind the ad's inaccuracy (Kerry didn't actually vote for legislation that authorizes schools to give students the morning-after pill; he voted to allow parents more control over how schools spend federal dollars, which, in some cases, could be spent on the pill). Its message is clear: Bush is not just running against abortion, he's moving the bar to include pregnancy prevention.

No one who paid attention to the May scuffle over emergency contraception should be surprised. After all, Bush stacked the Food and Drug Administration's scientific panels with appointees who succeeded in blocking the drug from becoming available over the counter. His appointees to the FDA Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee weren't just religious conservatives, they were among a fringe minority of religious conservatives who object to certain kinds of contraception, insisting they're forms of abortion.

For instance, Joseph B. Stanford, a Utah physician Bush appointed to the FDA committee, refuses to prescribe the birth control pill, saying it's "incompatible with Christian values." As Stanford—and the "Human Life Amendment" plank of the Republican Party platform—would have it, pregnancy, and life, begin when a sperm and egg meet. Thus, the IUD, the birth control pill, the patch, the vaginal ring, and other hormonal contraceptive methods become objectionable because they either can or are designed to work after fertilization.

Bush started his term by removing a budget provision that required some insurance companies serving federal employees to cover contraception. Then federal National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed fact sheets about sex education and the effectiveness of condoms from their websites. Bush went on to cut funds for family planning throughout his time in office while pouring money into "abstinence-only" education, which forbids frank discussion of birth control. For the past three years, Bush has withheld $34 million for international family planning from the United Nations Population Fund. Meanwhile, he is promising to increase abstinence funding, already at record levels, and to insist that nearly one-third of domestic funding for HIV/AIDS be spent on abstinence.

The president has installed several far-right conservatives to wage the war against contraception. He appointed Tom Coburn, a former Republican congressman who has opposed condom use, as co-chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS. Dr. W. David Hager, another Bush appointee to the FDA reproductive health panel, is a former spokesperson for the Christian Medical Association and co-author of a book that recommends scripture reading and prayers for various ailments.

Sadly, the "prayer method" doesn't work very well when it comes to preventing pregnancies—an idea not lost on voters. When the advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice America conducted focus groups in swing states, female voters between 18 and 39 said that the single most convincing election message about choice is that the next president will make a range of decisions that affect not only abortion, but also birth control. Yet most in the focus groups were unaware of Bush's record on contraception.

That's where the new political ads come in. "If they understand that their most intimate liberties are at stake," says Cavendish, "they'll vote for John Kerry."

Me too! You are right that a lot of people did not want to believe it.

This guy won't be able to force doctors to only give birth control to married women. The AMA which is chock full of Bush supporters, I think, would be breathing down the backs of the Republican party and the FDA. AMA wields a lot of power. They won't take kindly to being told who they can prescribe birth control pills to. Trust me. Doctors are THE most stubbornly independent people in the world. When you enter the sacred space between doctor and patient you are messing with hell, fire, and damnation! Just let Bush try it!!! In addition, birth control pills make a lot of money for drug companies. Bush will protect the drug companies.

I don't know - maybe what this country needs is more women with PMS and a good book to use as a weapon.

I hope this website will help serve as a place where we can all get information so that we can battle this administration in the days to come. It is truly frightening what these people are capable of doing. I am devastated by our loss on election day but we do not have the luxury of mourning for long. These people are ready to hit the ground running and we have to be there to make sure that they don't run over us!!!!

I wish that were true but Bush is promising the docs that he will pass tort reform. I'm afraid a lot of those "independent" docs will go along to get along.

What about the women who are fibro-cystic? They use contraceptives as treatment to control painful cysts.

Yeah, I know... so what. They don't care.

This pray you don't get pregnant movement in the govt will encourage insurance companies not to cover any form of birth control, not even sterilization.

Already some drug stores employees, hospital employees and doctors refuse to provide birth control. Some states have laws tht allow them not to if it is against their religion. It has even happened in states like PA, which doenst have that law.

Come on now, Republicans have sex just like everyone else, maybe even more. I don't think alot of women would go for this and alot of men for that matter.

I will use the quote in your signature to answer your comment.

All it takes for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing. ~ Edmund Burke

Those Republicans will not believe it either until it happens.

Crud....
I have read about him before. He makes me angry because I have
to take contraceptives for a health problem and he won't even prescribe contraceptives to women for health problems.

CNN reports that Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid, consistent opponent of abortion rights, says he has the votes to replace Sen. Tom Daschle as Senate Minority Leader.

:ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

we should start saying things like "get your nose out of my vagina". that would really freak them out. oh noz! teh "V" word!!!

not to make light of this at all; i'm so outraged i can barely breathe. i've written myriad letters to politicians and news organizations on this subject... i want these nasty old men out of my frikking womb already.

(First, I am glad to see so many of the regulars from the Kerry forum on this new site - glad to be back with all of you)

Please read this email I just received and send a message to the White House to oppose this appointment and to help protect women's health and rights. Thank you.

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
practice. His views of reproductive health care are
far outside the mainstream for productive 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. Send a statement to
the White House, opposing the placement of Hager.

I dont think sending a statement to the white house is gonna do much.

But holy shit on toast, this guy is a "expletive deleted"ing loon!

Unless Hager has to be appointed again, this is old news. I've been cursing this old coot for a couple of years now. Yes, he was given the appointment.

His appointment is limited to that division which means we'll just continue with the status quo of limiting development of new contraceptive measures and, possibly, deal with a market removal of the morning after pill (wasn't he in line with those coots who believe a woman can't get pregnantfrom rape because she secretes a special hormone to prevent pregnancy when she's raped??) and RU-486. I don't think he'll have the guts to try to pull regular approved contraception; while the fundamentalist Christians in the "pro life" movement are against contraception, many more mainstream people who are against abortion believe in contraception to prevent pregnancy (and abortion) and utilize fertility treatments to have children. Dividing things along those lines would actually push those "pro-lifers" to support the pro-choice movement.

Other drugs for women's health related issues (menstrually associated migraine, breast/uterine cancer, PMDD, etc.) are evaluated in other divisions.

I am with Lyn. This is a story that has been passed around by email for over 2 years.

The person we should truly be concerned about is actually Karl Rove. In doing research for a paper for school on Embryonic Stem Cell Research, I discovered when Bush made his decision on public funding for stem cell research, he had originally intended to be a bit more moderate. Rove squashed that plan, telling the President he didn't want to alienate the Catholics and so the guidelines were severely limited.

If we are not careful, Rove will be the one who will "advise" Bush to step into our bedrooms and doctors' offices and limit our opportunities. He is far more dangerous than Bush, and unfortunately, more intelligent.

Ew! Sex with a republican! Gross!

As noted by a few folks already, this is old news. Hager was re-appointed in June. I think fact checking is very important for our efforts as we only look silly sending petitions that are basically null and void.

I check EVERYTHING at snopes.com and/or truthorfiction.com and Google it.

Here's the news on Hager:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/hager.htm

"Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." —George W. Bush, Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004

Contraception Debate Delays Nomination of FDA Chief

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page A07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

The nomination of Lester M. Crawford to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration was put on indefinite hold yesterday by two Democratic senators to protest the administration's long delay in deciding whether to allow non-prescription sales of the emergency contraceptive Plan B.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced the hold after a 30-minute meeting with Crawford yesterday that she said ended without a commitment regarding when the Plan B issue might be resolved. She said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) joined her in blocking a vote on the confirmation until the FDA acts.

Murray said that the administration appears to be making a "political and ideological decision" regarding Plan B, and that "there is no scientific reason for this approval to not go forward." She said the FDA's credibility as a science-based agency "is on the line."

Crawford, FDA's acting commissioner, left the meeting in Murray's office without commenting. Clinton and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) also attended the meeting.

The FDA approved emergency contraception in 1999 as a prescription-only drug. Its manufacturer, Barr Laboratories, applied for approval to sell Plan B without a prescription in April 2003, and an agency advisory panel voted 23 to 4 to support the application later that year. FDA's scientific staff also strongly recommended approval.

Steven Galson, acting director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, surprised many by rejecting the application last May. The FDA was supposed to decide on a revised application in January, but it has taken no action.

The question of whether emergency contraception should be available without a prescription has become contentious -- with social conservatives saying it would encourage young women to be promiscuous and advocates of wider use saying it would prevent pregnancies that could result in abortions.

If taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, Plan B works like a contraceptive and prevents ovulation, fertilization or implantation of a fertilized egg. The most generally accepted definition of when life begins is when a fertilized egg is implanted in the uterus, but some religious conservatives believe it happens when the egg is fertilized and consider emergency contraception a form of abortion. Most medical professionals do not.

During his confirmation hearing, Crawford appeared to say that the Plan B application would ultimately be approved, but Murray said he was unclear on that question yesterday. She said the FDA voiced two remaining concerns -- that the easier availability would effect the behavior of young women and that a lawsuit filed by advocates of Plan B against the FDA in January had made the review more complicated.

That lawsuit focuses on how the drug would be sold. Advocates want Plan B to be available on pharmacy shelves, while Barr Laboratories -- in its second submission -- proposed that it be available without a prescription but only from a pharmacist.

After the meeting, Clinton said that "the FDA has had the Plan B application for years and the American people simply need an answer, yes or no. Science should never take a back seat to politics and ideology."

Thanks for posting that Heritage.

This is a fight we have to win. The government has no right to rule over our personal choices.

It is moronic to deny access to birth control.

Are we to assume that * and Laura were abstinant for 22 years (since that one time when they made the twins) and that the government has a right to force everyone else to be also?

Now Bush's EPA Chief nominee is attacking infants/children with a pesticide study in a poor county, DUVALL, in Florida. See the EPA forums.

Senators Boxer of CA and Nelson of Florida are blocking Bush's nominee.

Bush blocks plan to lift US ban on stem-cell research Times Online