The war on science takes its toll on women

The White House war on science took another victim today as highly regarded scientist and Associate Commissioner of the FDA resigned in protest of the administration's interference in scientifically based legislation, in favor of politically driven appeasements to the "holier than thou" crowd.

Susan Wood charged that FDA's leader overruled his own scientists' determination that the morning-after pill could safely be sold without a prescription, and stunned his employees last week by instead postponing indefinitely a decision on whether to let that happen.

"There's fairly widespread concern about FDA's credibility" among agency veterans as a result, Wood told The Associated Press hours after submitting her resignation Wednesday.

"I have spent the last 15 years working to ensure that science informs good health-policy decisions," Wood, director of FDA's Office of Women's Health, wrote in an e-mail about her departure to agency colleagues. "I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended by the professional staff here, has been overruled."

It was an unprecedented public show of discord for the FDA, and prompted lawmakers to call for congressional hearings into whether the nation's leading public health agency allowed politics to trump science.

Long overdue I might add. The FDA brass, as most recently demonstrated by the Vioxx scandal, has been bought off by the pharma corps for too long. It's being run by managers handpicked by the White House. It's about time for the electorate to hold them accountable for their decisions.