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Reproductive Health and the FDA: Buffeted by Political Battles

By Amy Allina

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Since its inception, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. government's main watchdog agency over the pharmaceutical industry, has been subject to political pressures that undermine its mission to ensure drug safety and protect consumer health. In the last several years, these pressures have intensified as the FDA is buffeted by the Bush administration's right-wing agenda and an ever more powerful pharmaceutical industry. More often than not, women's reproductive health and safety are caught in the crossfire of these political and economic agendas.

Amy Allina is Program Director of the National Women's Health Network, a national organization that is committed to ensuring that women have self-determination in all aspects of their reproductive and sexual health. Prior to joining the NWHN in 1999, she worked on women's health policy issues at the consulting firm of Bass and Howes and as the Political Organizer for the Maryland affiliate of NARAL. She serves on the board of directors of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project and the Alan Guttmacher Institute.