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Religion Vs. Medicine in the U.S.A

  
 
casemaker
14:14 / 11.02.03
I just received this in an email and thought the brains around here would want a gander.
I sent an email to G.W. but I doubt it does much besides add my name to a list of enemies. Sorry about the brackets.


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 has
> 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 of setback for reproductive
> technology. Dr. Hager is a practicing OB/GYN who
> de! scribes himself as "pro-life" and refuses to
> prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women. Hager is
> 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.
>
> 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. Hagar'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.Hagar 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 t! echnologies 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.
>
>
> WHAT CAN YOU DO?
> 1. SEND THIS TO EVERY PERSON 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 or (202)
> 456-1414 and say "I oppose the appointment of Dr.
> Hager to the FDA ! Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory
> Committee. Mixing religion and medicine
> is unacceptable. Using the FDA to promote a political
> agenda is inappropriate and seriously threatens all
> women's health."

ps -- calling is almost always more effective as it forces secretaries to hear
a message as opposed to just deleting emails.
 
 
Funktion
00:45 / 12.02.03
While I support the opposition of Whack Ass Dubya mandates....

I think the true problem lies in the system. It is too easily gamed and only because of the nobility of various individual citizens does medicine truly advance...

Sadly the philosophy of "the business of america is business" has clouded even the Hippocratic oath to some...
 
 
Elbereth
06:03 / 12.02.03
I think the inappropriate bias is in being either prochoice or prolife. I mean yeah this guy could do some very harmful stuff and he is kind of a wacko but ive had some girls who i know who have had major difficulties with current reproductive technologies (cancer, failure and other stuff) and the thought of abortion makes me literally sick to my stomach from past experience. Yeah GW put in a hard right winger but first: could we expect him to do any less and second: is that any better than a democratic "women's rights" freak who thinks condoms are effective birth control and abortion is a simple harmless medical procedure?
 
 
Kit-Cat Club
09:24 / 12.02.03
Condoms *are* effective as birth control, especially with spermicide - theoretically 98% of the time, in practice 91% of the time (because they break); even the pill is theoretically 99% effective and 97% in practice - no method is perfect, but with no method at all... well. Let's not forget that condoms are also effective against STDs. Also, for some women abortion *is* a harmless, simple medical procedure, and - even if it does make you, personally, feel sick - every woman should have the right to decide for herself.

Moreover, even if people have medical problems with current birth control technologies (which they do, obviously - I imagine pretty much everyone knows someone who's had problems with it in some way or another) that shouldn't preclude the availability of those technologies for people who don't have the problems, or the development of new technologies which might be an improvement or might, as in the case of mifepristone, have other benefits. If people have the choice, those who disagree can opt not to use the technologies; if they don't have the choice, no one can use them (and that's why a 'democratic "women's rights" freak' would be preferable; I'm slightly worried by your use of scare quotes round [women's rights] there, by the way - do you have a problem with the idea?)

To have someone as the head of the FDA's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee who is actively anti-birth control drugs of any sort... !!!! And for you, Elbereth, so be able to say 'could we expect him to do any less' - well, that's all the indictment of the Bush administration I need...
 
 
Elbereth
15:27 / 12.02.03
everyone thinks that condoms are 98% effective that's if they are used properly and are new, ect. they are actually only 83% effective in practice against both STDs and pregnancy (the 97% is for pregnancy only and some STDs are not stopped by condoms). Thats like 1/6 like russian roullette like dangerous. Yes it's still better than unsafe sex but it's not what i would consider safe sex. "could we expect him to do any less" was supposed to be an indictment I'm not defending this guy here. All i'm saying is that why are we all being prochoice when actually no one wants anyone to have an abortion (i've seen a few and i just think it's pretty horrible), if we got some one from the other side in there would it make things any better. I mean Dr. Hager will probably make things worse with the no birth control thing will probably make things worse but it shouldn't be a prochoice prolife thing but a prolife with the acknowledgement of the fact of the necessary reality of some abortions. Also just for the record abortions are not harmless to the fetus and are almost never harmless for the woman and i have a big problem with anyone who thinks that abortion a right something to be proud of and say look we now have rights while parading around with dead babies. It's like saying you have the right to puke in public or to drink menstral blood or do other hideous things. thats the biggest problem i have with prochoice "womens rights" freaks is that it is at most a necessary evil, and never a "good" thing.
 
 
Lurid Archive
16:18 / 12.02.03
It's like saying you have the right to puke in public or to drink menstral blood or do other hideous things - Elbereth

Though I could find you people who wouldn't think either of those as hideous. Which just goes to show that its hard to generalise feeelings of disgust and that makes for a shaky legislative foundation.
 
 
casemaker
17:58 / 12.02.03
I didn’t mean to ignite the age old polarized abortion debate. I don’t see this appointment as a pro-choice/pro-life issue. The problem is that The President is going against the democratic process which he has sworn to uphold. Love it or leave it, abortion is legal here in the U.S. of A. and has been for some time. For The President to knowingly appoint a man to the FDA, a man with the intention of undermine the public’s right to such medication, goes against policy that has been issued prior to his inauguration. He pulled a similar maneuver when he cut American funding to the United Nation’s family planning program last year. This President swears to us that he is a “freedom lover” and yet flagrantly abuses the process he believes puts America on a moral higher ground than Iraq or Afghanistan. Despite his personal beliefs against the operation of abortion, he should at the very least, uphold the decisions of The Supreme Court. By not doing so he is a blatant hypocrite. If abortion is legal in America than shouldn’t it’s foreign and domestic policy reflect that?

Besides, even to The President, this doesn’t exist as a pro-choice/pro-life issue. He and Karl Rove are handing a token gift over to the religious right that bought him his office, the same way they satiated liberal organizations with the increase in international AIDS funding the day after his State Of The Union address.

Also, these strange distorted acolytes of Christianity are popping up all over his cabinet now. I find it more than a little disturbing that David Hager believes that he can pray his wife’s menstrual cramps away. And Attorney General John Ashcroft believes that Tabby cats are evil incarnate. This administration is starting to make David Icke look normal.
 
 
Baz Auckland
01:54 / 25.09.03
This is the most suitable old thread I could find:

Study: U.S. Abortion Policy Closes African Clinics

President Bush's anti-abortion policy has forced family planning clinics in poor countries to close, leaving some communities without any healthcare, according to a report issued Wednesday. Even faith-based clinics that promote abstinence -- in line with White House policy -- have had to close, according to organizers.

Under the policy, known as the Mexico City rule by supporters and the Global Gag rule by opponents, foreign family planning agencies cannot receive U.S. funds if they provide abortion services or lobby to make or keep abortion legal in their own country.

You cannot separate HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and abortion," said Hillary Fyfe, who heads the Family Life Movement of Zambia, a faith-based group working with adolescents on sex education. While her group does not promote abortion or even condom use, it does talk about the possibility, and that was enough to lose U.S. funding, Fyfe said. Three clinics in Lusaka closed this year. "We taught natural family planning and abstinence until marriage," Fyfe said in an interview. Now her group will be unable to holds its workshops unless they can find alternative funding, Fyfe said.

In Kenya's Mathare Valley, a family planning clinic closed, leaving 300,000 people with no healthcare services. "And there is no other family planning or reproductive health clinic nearby," the report said. In Romania, women may be more likely to get abortions, not fewer, because the rule has meant more women cannot get any information on contraceptives that can prevent unwanted pregnancies, the report said.

See www.globalgagrule.org for the report.

The White Houses's defense is that they say that Bush just pledged $15 billion for AIDS, so if anyone wants to fight AIDS in Africa, they money is there to keep facilities going...

...not to bring up a seperation of church and state debate, but this just seems like an area politics should have no place in...
 
  
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