You should be OUTRAGED!

I should know better than to post a political hotbed topic, but I cannot help it. ALL of you in the US should be OUTRAGED by the latest steps of our president to shove his religious beliefs down our throats through political maneuvering. Our constitution protects against this for very good reasons, but for some strange reason, he ignores those laws.

It should not matter if you agree with his view or not, because that is NOT the issue of which I speak here. The issue is IF a president should be allowed to so blatantly mix the views of his church and religion into his policy making decisions, or change or set law based on those religious beliefs?

If you agree with this agenda, I am sure you will say yes, but if you approve the administration doing so this time, what happens when the next president, one with which you may not agree, tries to do the same thing. Sure, THEN you will be outraged and angry because you disagree with the topic. But the topic is not THE issue. We need to protect the rights of ALL citizens for the freedoms this country offers, and that includes being free from such nonsense as this president suggests here.

Take a second to act on the e-mail below. As I said, even if you agree with the agenda topic, the method of achieving that goal must not be allowed to take place. Who knows, maybe the next president will outlaw pork as unhealthy because an a Orthadox Jewish doctor assigned to a post will declare it so? Would THAT be OK? I think not! How is this any different.

Even if this account is exaggerated, which, given the web, it may be, this is still a dangerous precedent to be set.

The issue can be followed On the Web. , and here is the problem as reported on the web:

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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 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 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 omen 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.

Hager’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. Hager 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.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

1. SEND THIS TO EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW 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.

Please email President Bush at president@whitehouse.gov or call the White House at 202-456-1111 and say 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.

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