WP: Memo May Have Swayed Plan B Ruling-outspoken evangelical Conservative

[Pirate Smile]

Memo May Have Swayed Plan B Ruling
FDA Received 'Minority Report' From Conservative Doctor on Panel

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 12, 2005; Page A02

Soon after the Food and Drug Administration overruled its advisory panel last year and rejected an application to make an emergency contraceptive more easily available, critics of the agency said it had ignored scientific evidence and yielded to pressure from social conservatives.

The agency denied the charge, but an outspoken evangelical conservative doctor on the panel subsequently acknowledged in a previously unreported public sermon that he was asked to write a memo to the FDA commissioner soon after the panel voted 23 to 4 in favor of over-the-counter sales of the contraceptive, called Plan B. He said he believes his memo played a central role in the rejection of that recommendation.

-snip-
Speaking at the Asbury College chapel in Wilmore, Ky., Hager said, "I was asked to write a minority opinion that was sent to the commissioner of the FDA. For only the second time in five decades, the FDA did not abide by its advisory committee opinion, and the measure was rejected."

-snip-
Hager has been a highly controversial figure because of his strong views against abortion and emergency contraception and in favor of abstinence education. In his October sermon, he said that Christians such as himself were at "war" with people who would take faith and values out of medical care.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/11/AR2005051101812.html

Here is The Nation article which this WP article refers to:

Dr. Hager's Family Values

-snip-
That day, a mostly friendly audience of 1,500 students and faculty packed into the seats in front of him. With the autumn sunlight streaming through the stained-glass windows, Hager opened his Bible to the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel and looked out into the audience. "I want to share with you some information about how...God has called me to stand in the gap," he declared. "Not only for others, but regarding ethical and moral issues in our country."

For Hager, those moral and ethical issues all appear to revolve around sex: In both his medical practice and his advisory role at the FDA, his ardent evangelical piety anchors his staunch opposition to emergency contraception, abortion and premarital sex. Through his six books--which include such titles as Stress and the Woman's Body and As Jesus Cared for Women, self-help tomes that interweave syrupy Christian spirituality with paternalistic advice on women's health and relationships--he has established himself as a leading conservative Christian voice on women's health and sexuality.

And because of his warm relationship with the Bush Administration, Hager has had the opportunity to see his ideas influence federal policy. In December 2003 the FDA advisory committee of which he is a member was asked to consider whether emergency contraception, known as Plan B, should be made available over the counter. Over Hager's dissent, the committee voted overwhelmingly to approve the change. But the FDA rejected its recommendation, a highly unusual and controversial decision in which Hager, The Nation has learned, played a key role. Hager's reappointment to the committee, which does not require Congressional approval, is expected this June, but Bush's nomination of Dr. Lester Crawford as FDA director has been bogged down in controversy over the issue of emergency contraception. Crawford was acting director throughout the Plan B debacle, and Senate Democrats, led by Hillary Clinton and Patty Murray, are holding up his nomination until the agency revisits its decision about going over the counter with the pill.

-snip-
Back at Asbury, Hager cast himself as a victim of religious persecution in his sermon. "You see...there is a war going on in this country," he said gravely. "And I'm not speaking about the war in Iraq. It's a war being waged against Christians, particularly evangelical Christians. It wasn't my scientific record that came under scrutiny . It was my faith.... By making myself available, God has used me to stand in the breach.... Just as he has used me, he can use you."

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050530&s=mcgarvey

[DanCa]

1. Sometimes I get so mad at these conservative moralist.

These people really really annoy me. Playing games with people lives like that. Urgh.

[Erika]

2. Trying to shove their theocracy interpretations down

out throats.

[DanCa]

4. I empathise

I have been banned from the church of my birth because I voted for AL Gore. I also have parkinsons and I t hink that no ones religion and no ones government has the right to keep me this broken. And now just when I think they cant hurt me anymore they're trying to steal my faith. Well they can have the damn building but the wont have my soul. Sorry time for zolofft :)

[Pirate Smile]

6. This is such a chilling article. The idea that this man is in a position

to have such a huge influence on scientific and medical decisions is truly frightening. Here is more:

"Speaking at the Asbury College chapel in Wilmore, Ky., Hager said, "I was asked to write a minority opinion that was sent to the commissioner of the FDA. For only the second time in five decades, the FDA did not abide by its advisory committee opinion, and the measure was rejected."

-snip-
"I argued from a scientific perspective, and God took that information, and he used it through this minority report to influence the decision," Hager said. "Once again, what Satan meant for evil, God turned into good."

[DeepModem Mom]

8. You said it, PS!

When you consider the people with power in this country, the people running our government, from Cheney to DeLay right on down the line to this man, it IS truly frightening. I don't know how much longer we can go on like this.

[MaineDem]

3. Hager is evil

He never should have been appointed to the FDA.

Pure evil.

[Pirate Smile]

10. How did he get appointed? Here is how

"In tandem with his medical career, Hager has been an aggressive advocate for the political agenda of the Christian right. A member of Focus on the Family's Physician Resource Council and the Christian Medical and Dental Society, Hager assisted the Concerned Women for America in submitting a "Citizen's Petition" to the FDA in August 2002 to halt distribution and marketing of the abortion pill, RU-486. It was this record of conservative activism that ignited a firestorm when the Bush Administration first floated his name for chairman of the FDA's advisory committee in the fall of 2002. In the end, the FDA found a way to dodge the controversy: It issued a stealth announcement of Hager's appointment to the panel (to be one of eleven members, not chairman) on Christmas Eve. Liberals were furious that they weren't able to block his appointment. For many months afterward, an outraged chain letter alerting women to the appointment of a man with religious views "far outside the mainstream" snaked its way around the Internet, lending the whole episode the air of urban legend."

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050530&c=2&s=mcgarvey

[MaineDem]

14. Oh I know HOW he was appointed

It was done under cover of darkness, so to speak.

I was very much involved writing letters and making calls and letting people know how dangerous this idiot would be for women's health care.

[MO_Dem]

5. I'm curious!

Why are these stories only coming out now? "a previously unreported sermon" that was supposedly delivered in October and the preacher in N.C. who supposedly delivered his "repent or resign" sermon in October? Who held back this information before the election, and who is dumping them on us now?

[Pirate Smile]

7. I posted The Nation article in the original post now. You may want

to read it. This guy is really disgusting.

[countmyvote4real]

9. Good point. Maybe there are some disgruntled journalists

that are tired of being tabloid reporters for CNN, etc.

[grasswire]

11. Jenna's boyfriend's last name is Hager.

Could he be related? Yuck!

[Miss Chybil]

12. He's at war with people who take faith and values out of medical care?

I'm at war with people who don't realize their rights to freedom of religion end where mine begin, at my nose. We are witnessing the rise of the American Taliban.

[LTRS]

13. Here's the part that really pisses me off

... and we hear one supposed Christian after another mouth this bullshit:

"And I'm not speaking about the war in Iraq. It's a war being waged against Christians, particularly evangelical Christians."

These morons really, truly, believe that unless all of us are forced to do whatever THEY think we should do and share their close minded views then THEY are being oppressed.

It's infuriating!