NOW to Bush Administration: Don't Mix Religion and Medicine at the FDA

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) spoke against the nomination of W. David Hager at an Oct. 16 news conference in Washington, D.C.

October 16, 2002

Statement of NOW President Kim Gandy

The National Organization for Women and the NOW Foundation Women's Health Project strongly oppose the nomination of Dr. W. David Hager to the Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). We stand with numerous other women's rights and health advocates both inside and outside Congress and within the medical community when we say to President Bush and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson: "Don't mix religion with medicine at the FDA."

Rev. Roselyn Smith-Withers of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice spoke of the importance of the separation of church and state.

NOW is appalled at the Bush administration's blatant and continued use of key government appointments to advance its ultra-conservative agenda. Dr. Hager is vehemently anti-abortion rights. He is on record against emergency contraception. In a Time magazine article, sources familiar with Dr. Hager's private practice say he refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unwed women. He has spoken out against the use of birth control pills and condoms outside of marriage. Hager is a member of the Physicians Resource Council, part of the radical right group Focus on the Family. And he has written books and articles encouraging women to turn to prayer and scripture to help heal ailments such as premenstrual syndrome, postpartum depression and eating disorders.

Prayers for PMS? Beatitudes for bulimia? That such an individual could be put in a position to influence FDA decisions on drugs and devices related to women's reproductive health is outrageous.

His appointment would also represent a serious conflict of interest: This is the same committee whose recommendation prompted the FDA's long-awaited approval of mifepristone (RU-486) in 2000. Dr. Hager is leading the Christian Medical Association's effort petitioning the FDA to ban mifepristone. The committee is also slated to conduct a major study of hormone- replacement therapy in menopause beginning this year—research critical to women's health. Do we want Dr. Hager's ideology to color the science of this important work?

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said: "This Administration seems to have expanded its faith-based initiative to faith-based medicine."

According to Hager's hometown newspaper, the Lexington Herald-Leader, he has already been appointed to two other federal women's health advisory committees this year—one on sexually transmitted diseases and cervical cancer at the Centers for Disease Control and another for women's services at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Apparently the Bush administration has run into a shortage of faith healers to serve on government panels.

We are counting on Congress, our allies and individual women's rights supporters to put pressure on the Bush administration to stop appointing far-right ideologues to key advisory committees, the courts and every open position Bush can find. Women's health and well-being are at risk.

Click here to send an action alert and add your voice to the coalition of opposition to Dr. W. David Hager.

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For Immediate Release
Contact: Mai Shiozaki, 202-628-8669, ext. 116; cell 202-641-1906

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