Resignations and Demotions, Politically Motivated
Wednesday, August 31st, 2005
So, in what amounts to making a stand for something you believe in, the chief of women’s health at the FDA has resigned over the agency’s inability to make the medically correct (albeit politically unfavored) decision over the morning after pill. While I have a great respect for Susan Wood and her commitment to making a statement with her resignation, even in the face of an administration very harsh on its critics, I always wonder about decisions such as these.
I mean, I don’t really know her situation, but I would really have to feel like absolutely nothing I could do in my current position would make any difference before tendering a resignation. It’s usually much easier to reform the system from the inside, and there’s the added problem of what fundamentalist nut they might choose to replace you. It’s obvious from Ms. (Mrs.? Dr.?) Wood’s statements that she’s of a reasonable nature and open to the findings of solid medical science, so I’m a bit worried about the motivations of whoever will assume her current position as the women’s health advocate at the FDA.
In other, but equally ‘anti-guvment” news, we have the fight over the fate of the Halliburton deal whistleblower over at the Corps of Engineers. To refresh everyone’s memory, one of Greenhouse’s chief concerns was quoted at the end of the article:
“Her main objection was the issuance to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root of a no-bid, five-year contract to restore Iraqi oil fields shortly before the Iraq war began in 2003.”
The part that really sticks in my craw is the bit about “before the Iraq war began”.
Anyways, as a sidebar, it’s refreshing to see the strong influence these two principaled women have been able to exert as high-ranking government officials. It’s a shame that they’re both going through this crap on account of not only doing the right thing, but also doing it in accordance with the citizens’ best interests, as their jobs would demand.
