Bush's FDA Reproductive Committee to be run by faith healer?

I just got this email from a woman friend in Ohio (does anyone know what it's about?):

"Just another reminder of why it is so important to vote for
Kerry/Edwards in 15 days ... and to do what you can to work towards a
Kerry victory in swing states.

This petition checks out -- it's not an urban legend. Please read, and
if you agree that fundamentalist religious beliefs and women's access
to contraception are a dangerous mix, sign and pass along ..."

"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 productive
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. Below is a letter to be
sent to the White House, opposing the placement of
Hager. Please copy all the text of This email 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.
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. American
women deserve no less.
Every 25th person please forward e-mail to
president@whitehouse.gov"

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,361521,00.html

The guy who spearheaded the blocking of OTC sales of the morning after pill (after assuring people that his religious beliefs didn't preclude him from making sound policy decisions) for purely what he called 'social' reasons--- specifically saying that OTC Plan B Contraception had the potential to have the same kind of social impact as the availability of oral contraceptives did in the 1950s-- like that was a bad thing!


Essentially, this guy is pissed that women are able to take the pill at all, and if the pill was up for FDA approval today, he wouldn't let it be approved!

These folks are WAY out of control.

"These conservatives are really something. They'll do anything to protect the unborn. ANYTHING for the unbord. But once you're born. . . YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN!"