Alleged Rapist Hager, Outed in Nation Expose, Will Leave FDA Panel

[BurtWorm]

http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp

Feminist Daily News Wire
May 13, 2005



Evangelical Doctor to Leave FDA Advisory Panel
A controversial evangelical doctor will leave an important Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel following allegations that he had inordinate influence over the FDA's decision on nonprescription status for emergency contraception (EC). Dr. W. David Hager, appointed to the FDAs’s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee after ardent opposition from women’s reproductive health and rights groups, including the Feminist Majority, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that he “will no longer be on the advisory committee after June 30.”

An expose in The Nation published online yesterday revealed that Hager claims to have been asked by the FDA to write a minority opinion for the FDA commissioner explaining why over-the-counter status for the emergency contraceptive Plan B should be rejected. An FDA spokeswoman denied this claim, according to the Washington Post. Hager told the Herald-Leader that he could not “reveal” the name of the person who asked him for the minority report. The Nation story also featured a lengthy interview with Hager’s ex-wife, who alleges that Hager sexually abused her repeatedly during their marriage, which was corroborated with both on and off the record sources.

Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Patty Murray (D-WA) are urging the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to immediately investigate Hager’s claims and the FDA’s decision-making process on Plan B. “Day by day, the public’s confidence in the FDA’s ability to make decisions based on scientific evidence of safety and efficacy is eroding,” the Senators wrote in a letter to Michael Leavitt, HHS secretary. “The FDA should never let political considerations interfere with scientific treatment decisions.”

"The FDA’s credibility has taken serious hits of late," said Beth Jordan, MD, medical director of the Feminist Majority Foundation. “The FDA must address immediately the damning charges that an ideologically driven, fundamentalist Christian was able to exert an inordinate amount of influence over a decision that should be entirely based on the best medical science. Had it been, Plan B emergency contraception would certainly be available over-the-counter now and the nation could more seriously tackle the problem of unintended pregnancies.”



The horrifying story in the Nation is here:

http://thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050530&c=1&s=mcgarvey”

[ck4829]

1. A victory for America

It's good that this maniac is gone but he was allowed to influence the FDA for far too long.

[undergroundpanther]

5. Geez

Out all the Republicans that mistreat their wives/kids,are gay,have affairs,do fraud or other crimes,time to tell the truth and heal the pustule of abuses the size of an elephant in our country,in our homes. Out them all as they hypocrite, two faced bullies they are..People like this,in "high places" must be made accountable,to humane decency and basic human morality in their actions/relationships,morals like don't rape people or kill people and try to cover it up,or be a thief or abuser..

I wish more republican 'suibmissive'wives would stop the submission game and do the right thing and out the monsters they married,make them accountable by making the 'private' accountable to the public.. Telling the truth can stop the abuse.Just tolerating a bully or pretending he will change will not make him stop. Outing a bully is vital to the health of our society itself because for a person to be that cruel, disconnected from empathy,aggressive,hypocritical, power hungry to the point something wrong with their conduct in the public sphere..I suspect there is definitely something vile hiding in their private behavior that reinforces the public sickness..

All the church and political cliques enabling these bullies with reputations as'good people' need to wake up....They are only good because of the way abuse dynamics work for a time.. suppressing and terrorizing victims into withholding the truth from the light of day..

People in this political power system do not get to be rude callous republicans in the wealthy scamming elite bully gang destroying and abusing the publics trust and destroying lives in private for satisfying their own near sociopath lusts by being kindhearted to the people in their lives and to help their constituents live better,happier lives..

They abuse as a career, For instance if their families are terrified of being homeless if they tell the truth they obey and tolerate and try to work around financial abuses ... Likewise if the workers of a nation are submissive and terrified of becoming more poor or homeless because of a greedy company..they obey the boss and do their job hoping the greed and abuse at the top will not affect them as every purse string is controlled...

The republicans call kindhearted people liberals and they hate us as they use lies fear and abuse to twist the very meaning of kindhearted into a monster as they paint themselves as good guys.This is what abusers do to keep their victims complianty...Republicans (specifically the Neo Cons)are the worst abusers of the public trust ever.Abusers in private I suspect,and it apparently is coming true too..

Abuse and lack of conscience where their aggressive,risky, overconfident "focused" determination comes from..thier sociopath and conduct disorders and unhealthy abuse of power fuels their rise in politics,if they get away with it at home they have no conscience or ethical leash upon them to keep them from abusing the trust of the entire nation,and they will continue to abuse the trust of the nation and scam us as long as they can get away with it and they have a culture for company feeding on their P.R. blinded bobble heads extorted by the neocon concept of the vengeful father who beats his disobedient children,refusing out of FEAR to think their beloved leader just might really be a monster in private under all that false piety, smarmy and doublespeak.


So the lied to people rather than abandon their abusive father,do what traumatized kids do,they blame the victims and shoot the messengers and strive to make things go back in time to a mythical way we never were.. This reaction to outing abuses has got to stop..it's time to say NO more abuse as a nation to abusers of power.. We have to make leaders accountable to the voiceless,the weakest and least of our nation..

That NO to abuse extends to every abusive home saying no to a sexual rape in marriage,saying no to abusing kids,And out into the public like saying NO a bad nominees or NO to a bad rider,tacked onto a good bill.. It means every person in an abusive situation might be risking financial or emotional stability to do the right thing. But it must be done..The abuse will not stop on it's own..Intervention and a firm boundary of NO is required.

Freedom is not only freedom to do things..it is also the right to refuse,to resist and to not go along with the program.. NO is the essence of freedom as much as yes is..The ability to say NO I will not tolerate your bad behaviors,No I will not go along with you to make a deal with the devil. Saying NO also means having an ethical backbone and it makes freedom free of abusers of freedom..

I give three cheers for this brave woman..May she ruin her abusive husband...May this pig stand trial,be shamed ,jailed (or executed as far as I'm concerned) for his crimes against her and his criminal refusal misuse of the public trust to abuse this countries women .

What abuse is done in private homes across America is done in the white house because the same people dominate both kinds of houses.

Get the abusers out!

[FizzFuzz]

8. You are SO right, panther

:applause: for a superb post

I wish more republican 'suibmissive'wives would stop the submission game and do the right thing and out the monsters they married,make them accountable by making the 'private' accountable to the public.. Telling the truth can stop the abuse.

People in this political power system do not get to be rude callous republicans in the wealthy scamming elite bully gang destroying and abusing the publics trust and destroying lives in private for satisfying their own near sociopath lusts by being kindhearted to the people in their lives and to help their constituents live better,happier lives..

So the lied to people rather than abandon their abusive father,do what traumatized kids do,they blame the victims and shoot the messengers and strive to make things go back in time to a mythical way we never were.

Freedom is not only freedom to do things..it is also the right to refuse,to resist and to not go along with the program.. NO is the essence of freedom as much as yes is..The ability to say NO I will not tolerate your bad behaviors,No I will not go along with you to make a deal with the devil. Saying NO also means having an ethical backbone and it makes freedom free of abusers of freedom

I picked the most powerful paragraphs, but really, the whole thing is RIGHT ON

It's interesting to note that the first blatant assault on us, the people was the move on the first day in office to pass the Global Gag Rule, a small group of fabulously wealthy white men declaring war on women worldwide.

It seems that it is now women leading the charge for integrity and FREEDOM... Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Patty Murray (D-WA),
Barbara Boxer, Sibel Edmonds, Louise Slaughter (D-NY), ...(I know there are more, my memory fails me)

[ultraist]

15. It was women who said NO to this asshole

Clinton and Murray, as well as his ex wife certainly "did the right thing." I would like to point out that it's not just a matter of "emotional or financial stability" for abused women to "just say no." Oftentimes, they are risking their physical safety or lives. Is it really up to the victim to stop the perpetrator? Or is it up to all of us, to see to it the perpetrators are disempowered?

snip
Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Patty Murray (D-WA) are urging the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to immediately investigate Hager’s claims and the FDA’s decision-making process on Plan B. “Day by day, the public’s confidence in the FDA’s ability to make decisions based on scientific evidence of safety and efficacy is eroding,” the Senators wrote in a letter to Michael Leavitt, HHS secretary. “The FDA should never let political considerations interfere with scientific treatment decisions.”

"The FDA’s credibility has taken serious hits of late," said Beth Jordan, MD, medical director of the Feminist Majority Foundation. “The FDA must address immediately the damning charges that an ideologically driven, fundamentalist Christian was able to exert an inordinate amount of influence over a decision that should be entirely based on the best medical science. Had it been, Plan B emergency contraception would certainly be available over-the-counter now and the nation could more seriously tackle the problem of unintended pregnancies.”

:applause:

[Warren DeMontague]

18. this is the same asshole who justified his opposition to Plan B

by saying it "could have similar sociological effects to what happened when the birth control pill was made available".


Read: had oral contraceptives been made available today instead of some 40-odd years ago, he would have fought to keep them from women, as well.

[earthboundmisfit]

16. YES - well said undergroundpanther!!! We must STOP enabling these ABUSERS.

They are, as undergroundpanther so put it so well, abusers and bullies. We have to quit enabling the bastards by taking the high road with them, and being polite to them, and hoping they'll do the right thing eventually. It is apparent that it is FUTILE to expect them to behave as anything but THUGS - and yes we need to OUT them and keep their abusive actions front & center, in the public eye.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. That this moron was ever allowed to be a part of the FDA is horrifying.

[pretzel4gore]

3. he force sodomized his wife(?)

repeatedly...what a punk

[mzmolly]

4. Nominated.

Thank you.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

6. words of Linda Davis his ex-wife......

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

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.

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."

Up on the dais, several men seated behind Hager nodded solemnly in agreement. But out in the audience, Linda Carruth Davis--co-author with Hager of Stress and the Woman's Body, and, more saliently, his former wife of thirty-two years--was enraged. "It was the most disgusting thing I've ever heard," she recalled months later, through clenched teeth.

According to Davis, Hager's public moralizing on sexual matters clashed with his deplorable treatment of her during their marriage. Davis alleges that between 1995 and their divorce in 2002, Hager repeatedly sodomized her without her consent. Several sources on and off the record confirmed that she had told them it was the sexual and emotional abuse within their marriage that eventually forced her out. "I probably wouldn't have objected so much, or felt it was so abusive if he had just wanted normal sex all the time," she explained to me. "But it was the painful, invasive, totally nonconsensual nature of the sex that was so horrible."

Not once during the uproar over Hager's FDA appointment did any reporter solicit the opinion of the woman now known as Linda Davis--she remarried in November 2002 to James Davis, a Methodist minister, and relocated to southern Georgia--on her husband's record, even though she contributed to much of his self-help work in the Christian arena (she remains a religious and political conservative). She intermittently thought of telling her story but refrained, she says, out of respect for her adult children. It was Hager's sermon at Asbury last October that finally changed her mind. Davis was there to hear her middle son give a vocal performance; she was prepared to hear her ex-husband inveigh against secular liberals, but she was shocked to hear him speak about their divorce when he took to the pulpit.

[Turn CO Blue]

7. "Will no longer be on the advisory panel after June 30". Huh?

So he has another month-and-a-half to "advise" the FDA?

Let's hope that this a nice way of saying he was forced out by the FDA and that clearer heads prevail there, instead of that he is willingly stepping down to fade into the background now that he's been "outed" as a repeat rapist!

[coffeenap]

9. Wooo-hooo! Pressure works! Next...?

[gardenista]

10. Why the HELL is it that the only way we can get them out is with sex

scandals?! Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's out, and that his ex-wife spoke up about the horrors he put her through (though why she didn't leave his ass the first time he sodomized her without her consent is beyond me..), why does it take a sex scandal to get them out?!???

He is clearly completely inappropriate for the job, and probably a lunatic to boot.

[Warren Stupidity]

11. Theh Ann Coulter Heckler Connection

It wasn't until I heard about Hagler's alleged repeated anal raping of his wife that I made the connection to the UT student who got arrested for asking the hideous coulter if the sanctity of marriage includes anal rape. At first I thought his question was simply intended to be unsettling, now it appears that he was asking a specific on-topic question about our taliban and their sexual proclivities.

So do our taliban permit anal sex in marriage? Do they believe that married women have an obligation to provide sexual services to their husbands? And does that obligation include sodomy?

All good questions that every one of the taliban ought to be asked in every public forum.

[seemslikeadream]

12. Dr. W. David Hager: Scary Fundie to Head (FDA) Reproductive Health

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1135429

Bush* to appoint fundie to key FDA position
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1000235

Contraception in the Crosshairs, Paying off the Religious Right
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2663187

[Alpharetta]

13. Note he is an official at Focus on the Family

He serves on their Physician's Resource Council

[autorank]

14. What's with all these Republican perverts. I mean really!

Golly gee, maybe they take these moralistic stances to cover up their own behavior. Go figure!
:shrug:

On edit: It just occurred to me that we're probably going to see one of the Right Wing Super Stars get outed for something particularly filthy, you know a Michael Jackson thing with pictures. I have no inside info here but there are so many mid-levels getting outed, it's justlogical that one of the honchos gets it:
:spank:

[Warren DeMontague]

17. 'Bout fucking time

excuse the pun.

[Old and In the Way]

19. Wife molester..........sounds about right.

The ones that proclaim their close association to Godliness, all have dark secrets that are begging for exposure.

God works in funny ways..