In Dec. 2002, the Bush administration appointed David W. Hager to the Food and Drug Administration Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs, an influential women's reproductive rights panel. An article in Time Magazine stated that Dr. Hager is a Christian obstetrician who will not prescribe birth control to single women and prefers that his patients pray rather than seek medical attention. As 2003 is the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Dr. Hager's appointment might seem like a poignant setback for women's rights activists. The question at hand, then, is how Dr. Hager's appointment occurred without more public scrutiny.
Could the war in Iraq have anything to do with it? For months now, the media has focused on the Middle East and not important domestic issues. Day in and day out, newspapers are filled with reports of Saddam Hussein and weapons-of-mass destruction, leaving little room for other concerns. In the meantime, the Bush administration has managed to reduce women's rights, to increase tax-cuts for the well-to-do, and, according to one New York Times article, to propose eliminating the school lunch program for 2.4 million poor American children. Although it is important to pay attention to the war, Bush's ploy of pushing his agenda under the cover of the storm makes us a bit apprehensive. We urge the public to keep one eye on America at home and the other on America abroad, because something else might happen that we didn't even see coming.
