Pro-Life Group Blasts Acting FDA Chief on Abortion/Breast Cancer 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 27, 2005
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Pro-life advocates aren’t happy with the man who has been appointed as the acting commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration following the abrupt resignation of Lester Crawford. However, the appointment is temporary until President Bush finds a permanent replacement.
Following Crawford’s departure, Andrew von Eschenbach, director of the National Cancer Institute, became the acting FDA commissioner.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Von Eschenbach on Monday e-mailed cancer research advocates and called his appointment "an interim role" and said that he will "work to ensure an orderly transition of a new, permanent commissioner at the FDA."
That he won’t be heading up the agency full-time is good news to Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer.
"Von Eschenbach is no friend of women," warned Malec, a cancer survivor. "He’s a friend of the anti-woman abortion and pharmaceutical industries."
Malec says Von Eschenbach is responsible for the National Cancer Institute’s phony workshop that convened a biased panel of experts who concluded there is no link between abortion and breast cancer, despite a majority of studies showing it exists.
The workshop was billed as a "comprehensive" examination of a half-century of research linking abortion with increased breast cancer risk. In truth, it was a one-sided presentation intended to wipe out the idea in the public mind that abortion is unsafe, Malec explained.
The FDA had a commissioner who could resist political pressure," Malec explained — pointing to Crawford’s resistance to abortion advocates who bashed him for delaying again a decision on whether to sell the sometimes abortion drug Plan B over the counter.
She hopes the next FDA chief will be more like him.
However, Congressional Quarterly’s HealthBeat reports that "von Eschenbach may be running the agency on an acting basis for a considerable time" because the possible list of replacements has thinned. Some candidate may also not be given the position because they back abortion and President Bush doesn’t want an abortion advocate to head the agency.
Still, pressure is already being put on the president to name someone soon.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, a pro-life Iowa Republican, wrote Bush on Friday and said that Bush should come up with a new nominee soon because von Eschenbach won’t be able to run both the FDA and NCI successfully at the same time.
Related web sites:
Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer – https://www.abortionbreastcancer.com
