LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY hummingwolf)

U.S. probe sought of memo on 'morning-after' pill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. Senate Democrats called for an investigation on Thursday into whether a memo from a Christian doctor influenced regulators' rejection of over-the-counter sales of a "morning-after" contraceptive.

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Patty Murray of Washington said reports about the memo added to concerns that politics was trumping science in the government's review of Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Plan B contraceptive.

The memo's author, Dr. David Hager, is a Bush administration appointee to a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel that voted 23-4 in December 2003 to urge approval for Barr's bid to sell Plan B without a prescription.
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"If substantiated, these allegations seem to leave little doubt that the process for considering Barr Laboratories' application was based not on science, but on personal beliefs,"

US doctor downplays impact on Barr contraceptive

WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) - A Christian doctor who advises the government downplayed on Friday his role in U.S. regulators' decision last year to reject over-the-counter sales of Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s "morning-after" contraceptive.

Dr. David Hager said he was unsure if a memo he wrote in December 2003 had swayed regulators to reject Barr's bid to widen access to its Plan B emergency contraceptive.
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"I argued it from a scientific perspective, and God took that information, and he used it through this minority report to influence the decision ... Once again, what Satan meant for evil, God turned into good," he said in the speech in the college chapel. Reuters reviewed a video of the remarks.

His letter to the FDA about Plan B did not make any references to religion. Hager argued that more study was needed on whether adolescents would use the medication correctly and not as a primary method of birth control. He also said it was important to have longer-term data about what would happen if women took repeated doses of Plan B pills.

Dr. Hager's Family Values

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.

When Hager's nomination to the FDA was announced in the fall of 2002, his conservative Christian beliefs drew sharp criticism from Democrats and prochoice groups. David Limbaugh, the lesser light in the Limbaugh family and author of Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging Political War Against Christianity, said the left had subjected Hager to an "anti-Christian litmus test." Hager's valor in the face of this "religious profiling" earned him the praise and lasting support of evangelical Christians, including such luminaries as Charles Colson, Dr. James Dobson and Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham.

The above article also includes some invective from Hager's ex-wife along with a bit about his views of women in general.

Gynecologist expects to be off panel

A controversial Lexington physician said yesterday he does not expect to be appointed to a third term on a federal Food and Drug Administration advisory committee on reproductive health.

In an interview, Dr. W. David Hager also challenged claims by his ex-wife in a national magazine that he was abusive during their marriage.
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Yesterday, Hager, who was appointed by the Bush administration to the FDA's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee, questioned the motives of his ex-wife and the liberal monthly. He said the article -- which includes graphic details about their sex life together -- was "not based on all of the facts."

"As I said before, the allegations as stated do not reveal all of the information and therefore they're incomplete and not true," the obstetrician-gynecologist said.

"No one likes to be criticized, no one likes to be torn apart privately or publicly and I think that it's disappointing that my former wife has chosen this avenue to vent her anger and bitterness."

Hager has long been a target of groups who dislike his conservative Christian views and opposition to abortion. Many of those groups vigorously fought his appointment to the FDA board in 2002.

The White House declined to comment on whether Hager will be reappointed. "We don't speculate on personnel announcements," said White House spokesman Taylor Gross.