Reproductive Health Advisory Committees

In 2002, HHS impeded its ability to obtain objective scientific advice in women’s health by nominating Dr. W. David Hager, a conservative religious activist, to chair the FDA’s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. The committee is charged with evaluating the safety and effectiveness of drugs for obstetrics, gynecology, and related specialties.[1] In the past, FDA has chosen for this important position highly respected members of the scientific community with strong credentials in the field of reproductive health.

Dr. Hager’s principal experience for the position appeared to be his lobbying for a renewed safety review of the approved drug RU-486, an abortifacient, even though no significant new evidence called its safety into question. The Lancet described his “track record” as a researcher as “sparse.”[2] Dr. Hager’s major publications are medical books imbued with religious themes, such as offering advice that women who suffer from premenstrual syndrome should pray and read the bible.[3] Although ultimately not appointed chair, Dr. Hager is now a member of the committee.[4]

His appointment led the Lancet to comment:

Expert committees need to be filled, by definition, with experts. That means those with a research record in their field and in epidemiology and public health. Members of expert panels need to be impartial and credible, and free of partisan conflicts of interest, especially in industry links or in right-wing or religious ideology. Any further right-wing incursions on expert panels’ membership will cause a terminal decline in public trust in the advice of scientists.[5]

 

[1] FDA, Committee Charter: Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee (in effect through Mar. 23, 2004) (online at http://www.fda.gov/cder/audiences/acspage/reproductivecharter1.htm).

[2] Keeping Scientific Advice Non-Partisan, Lancet, 1525 (Nov. 16, 2002).

[3] David W. Hager and Linda Carruth Hager, Stress and the Woman’s Body (1996) as cited in Jesus and the FDA, Time (Oct. 5, 2002).

[4] FDA, Roster of the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Drugs (online at http://www.fda.gov/cder/audiences/acspage/reproductiveRoster.htm).

[5] Keeping Scientific Advice Non-Partisan, supra note 2.