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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 has 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
of setback 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.
Hagar'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 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.

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