DR. EVIL

by David Zlutnick, Project Collective

Hey! Guess what! Bush appointed another Jesus-loving rapist!

Dr. W. David Hager, an obstetrician-gynecologist and Bush’s appointee to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in the FDA recently gave a nice little speech at the chapel at Asbury College in Kentucky. Hager sits on the board of this small evangelical Christian school, whose administrative building, Hager Hall, bears his name.

Hager is the author of six books, including As Jesus Cared for Women. The recurring themes of all his works seem to revolve around firm opposition to abortion, premarital sex, and emergency contraception. As a member of Focus on the Family’s Physician Resource Council and the Christian Medical and Dental Society, Hager assisted the Concerned Women for America when they submitted a “Citizen’s Petition� to the FDA in August 2002 to stop the distribution and marketing of the abortion pill, RU-486.

Hager is also thought to be the driving force behind the FDA’s decision to not allow Plan B, emergency contraception, to be available over the counter. “After two days of hearings,� he said during his sermon at Asbury College, speaking of the discussions among his advisory board on Plan B, “the committees voted to approve this over-the-counter sale by 23 to 4. I was asked to write a minority opinion that was sent to the commissioner of the FDA [there is no verification a minority opinion was requested]... Now the opinion I wrote was not from an evangelical Christian perspective.... But I argued it from a scientific perspective, and God took that information, and He used it through this minority report to influence the decision.�

And on that day at Asbury College, Hager delivered his sermon and spoke of the “war going on in this country… a war being waged against Christians, particularly evangelical Christians.� Almost all present in the audience that day nodded their head in agreement, but not Linda Carruth Davis, who co-wrote Stress and the Woman’s Body with Hager, and was also married to him for thirty-two years. “It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard,� she later said.

Hager’s public appearance, as a charming, highly-moral man of faith, clashes, it seems, with his personal life. Davis has recently come public as saying that during the last seven years of their marriage, from ’95-’02, Hager repeatedly sodomized her without her consent.

Before these episodes, however, he would pay her for sex acts she would not otherwise perform, like $2000 for a blowjob. “I would let him sodomize me and he would leave a check on the dresser,� Davis said. This happened about once a week until she eventually put a stop to it. When she would willfully have sex with him, he would casually switch from vaginal to anal. When she objected, “He would say, ‘Oh, I didn’t mean to have anal sex with you; I can’t feel the difference.’ And I would say, ‘Well then, you’re in the wrong business,’� she recalls.

As if that isn’t bad enough, Davis suffers from narcolepsy, where one uncontrollably falls asleep. It seems Hager had been having sex with her while she slept, or until she woke up. She says he saw her narcolepsy as an opportunity. would be asleep and since [the sodomy] was painful and threatening, I woke up.�

In response to these allegations Hager’s response has been, “My comment is that I decline to comment.�

As deeply disturbing as these reports are, it becomes even more so considering Hager’s authoritative public role on women’s health. I personally find these accounts revolting. I know some on the right will say, and have already said, that this is a private matter and it has no business in, and no relation to, public events. Bullshit. What about the intrusive inquiries to Clinton’s private life? And there are some huge differences between Hager and Clinton. Monica consented to suck Bill’s dick. Clinton never broke the law and repeatedly raped his wife, taking advantage of physical disabilities. And the infamous affair never had any relevance to Clinton’s public responsibilities.

Between the births of their second and third children in the late-70s, Hager began an affair with a Bible-study classmate, who was also a friend of Davis’. She said that she has only cheated on Hager once, following the “chaotic events� of September 11. “I said to the Lord, ‘All right. I do not want to die without having sex with someone I love,’� she remembers. “’I want to know what that’s like, Lord. I know that it’s a sin, and I know this is adultery. But I have to know what it’s like.’�

Source:
“Dr. Hager’s Family Values� by Ayelish McGarvey, from The Nation, May 11, 2005