Dr. David Hager nominated for FDA panel-Truth!

Dr. David Hager Selected for the FDA’s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee-Truth!

Summary of eRumor:

The eRumor is a protest of the choice of Dr. David Hager to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee.  It says he is a religious pro-life physician who refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women and opposes the use of RU-486, the pill that ends a pregnancy.  

The Truth:

Dr. David Hager is a part of the teaching staff of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and has developed a reputation as an expert on gynecologic infections.
This eRumor was circulated before Dr. Hager actually became a member of the committee.
He is now a part of the panel, although he did not become the chairman of it.
He is a conservatively oriented physician and is a speaker and author in the Christian community who describes himself as pro-life.
He objected to this eRumor saying that he does not know who wrote it and that no one had interviewed him for it and that some of it is not accurate.
He says that he does not refuse to prescribe birth control for unmarried patients.
He is an advocate of abstinence but for patients who do not make that choice, he is not opposed to birth control prescription.
He also says that his opposition to RU-486 was based on his concerns about the safety of the drug.
He says RU-486 was approved under an “Accelerated Approval Process” reserved exclusively for anti-AIDS and anti-cancer drugs and an antihypertensive agent.  He says that normally the FDA requires one or more than one randomized, controlled trials before approving a drug, which was not done for RU-486.
He also says that he does not believe that standard birth control pills are abortifacient and has never written it.
He says he co-edited a book that referenced various views about birth control pills but that not all of those views were his own.
Regarding his views of how to deal with stress-related disorders in women, he says “I have always offered a holistic approach to therapy.  I suggest diet/exercise changes, medications as needed, counseling when required, and meditation/prayer.”

Last updated 11/30/03