Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 22

A22 Austin American-Statesman WORLD NATION Saturday, May 7, 2005 FDA: Nomination being held up over 'morning-after pill' dispute 'FDA has become one of, if not the most, difficult agencies to staff Paul Light Brookings Institution fellow Continued from A21 controversial since long before the Bush administration. David Kessler, appointed by the former President Bush, angered many conservatives with his attempt to regulate tobacco companies. When Kessler stepped down, the post remained vacant for almost two years in 1997 and 1998. Now the nomination of Lester Crawford, Bush's choice for FDA commissioner, has become entangled in the fight over whether the Plan contraceptive should be available over the counter. Crawford is currently the acting head of the agency.

His nomination is being blocked by Sens. Hillary Clinton, and Patty Murray, who are angry at FDA delays in deciding the status of Plan which can prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours after intercourse. In a twist, Sen. Michael Enzi, pending drug applications. Informally, FDA officials have said the delay is due in part to the complexity of the issue.

Barr recently announced that if the FDA rejects its application, the company will seek approval from state legislatures to allow pharmacists with special training to dispense Plan over the counter. "We have never seen any evidence" suggesting Plan encourages risky sexual behavior, said Barr spokeswoman Carol Cox. Meanwhile, Crawford's nom-, ination remains on hold, and the FDA remains leaderless and under fire. Clinton and Murray say they will continue to block Crawford's nomination under FDA takes action on Plan adding in a joint statement, "Science should never take a back seat to politics and ideology." chair of the Senate committee overseeing Crawford's nomination, has also postponed action because of an anonymous letter alleging that Crawford had an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. Enzi referred the letter to FDA's Office of Internal Affairs.

"Enzi hopes to move forward with the nomination as quickly as possible," said his spokesman, Craig Orfield. Administration officials con-finned that there are no immediate plans to withdraw Crawford's nomination. "We're confident in Crawford and his ability to lead the FDA," said Kevin Keane, spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, the FDA's parent agency. "Some of this is what you have to deal with in the confirmation process." Keane acknowledged that there is a sense of urgency It grabbed headlines recently when some pharmacists refused to provide the pill to customers for moral reasons. Some conservatives view Plan as a form of abortion, and others say it encourages promiscuous sex.

Advocates see Plan as an important advance in women's health, giving them more control over their bodies. There is no valid medical reason for the FDA not to approve Plan for over-the-counter use, they say, and the agency has been dragging its feet for ideological reasons. The Plan case is notable in part because the FDA took the unusual step of overruling its scientific staff and two of its advisory committees, which voted 23-4 in December 2003 in support of Plan being sold over the counter. The agency issued a "Not Approvable" letter in May 2004 to Plan B's manufacturer, Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. Alastair Wood, associate dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, sits on one of the FDA advisory boards and voted for the over-the-counter sales.

"It's the first time I know of the (FDA) making a decision in which no one has produced any scientific basis for the decision," Wood said. Joseph Stanford, a doctor at the University of Utah and an advisory board member who voted no, disagreed. The "effectiveness statistics quoted on the draft package labeling were outdated and overstated," he said. The FDA was expected to reach a decision in January but still has made no formal ruling. An agency spokesman would not comment on the Plan approval process, saying the agency does not comment on Accent Ohsirs Evont over 500 styles of chairs to select tram.

Find one tnat fits vou. I floppy! TH2S8 specie! euent prices are tor a liiriiied time, f-f II 'I ll IJ' "4- 1 i i 4 I I SSJ I I within the FDA to have a permanent commissioner so important decisions can be made quickly. "Permanent leadership certainly would help," he said. "There is difference between having permanent leadership at FDA and having a series of years with active leadership." The Crawford fight is, in a sense, the latest front in the battle over Plan which has been simmering for some time. CHAIR Oak Slat Rocker Limited Quantities 1 i' i I i I i Heribert Proepper pkiss Erna Flegel, 93, displays a photo of herself as a Red Cross nurse in 1936.

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"She didn't have any importance. Nobody expected much of her," she said. "She wasn't really his wife." By contrast, Flegel described Magda Goebbels, wife of Hitler's propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, as "a brilliant woman, on a far higher level than most people." The Goebbels also killed themselves and poisoned their six children in the bunker after Hitler's death. Flegel said she tried to persuade Magda Goebbels not to take the lives of her children as Russian troops got closer. But Goebbels replied: "I belong to my husband.

And the children belong to me," Flegel recalled. "You have to understand that we were living outside normal reality," Flegel said. Flegel's existence became known after the transcript of an interview she gave to American interrogators was declassified by the CIA four years ago, according to the Guardian. In a separate interview with the German tabloid BZ, Flegel said she wanted her story to be known. "I don't want to take my secret with me into death," she said.

Asked by the Guardian what she thought of Joseph Goebbels, Flegel replied: "I didn't like him. Nobody liked him. There were always people who hung around him, of course, relatives and so on, but they were only there because they wanted to help their careers." Flegel described how Hitler said goodbye to his medical staff on April 29, 1945, the evening before his suicide. "He came out of the side room, shook everyone's hand, and said a few friendly words. And that was it.

There were a few people who then heard it (the shot, when Hitler killed himself the next afternoon) and there were others who The Fuhrer suddenly wasn't there any more," she recalled. "I knew that the Fuhrer was dead. The Fuhrer had such an authority that when he was there you knew it. It felt so extraordinary," she said. The Guardian said Flegel remained in the bunker until the Russians arrived.

Asked why she had remained silent for 60 years about her experiences, Flegel said they were simply too controversial. "It was because after 1945 people started pointing fingers at each other and suggested that so and so was infected (a Nazi)," she said. Flegel evaded the question of whether she regretted her role in the Third Reich. "Everyone has their own opinion," she said. Cloistered in bunker as Russians closed in, Nazi leader described as a shattered man By Sue Leeman ASSXMTKDPRKSS LONDON Adolf Hitler was a shaking, graying, weakened man who "sank into himself' in the final days before his suicide on April 30, 1945, according to the first published account of his nurse, who worked in his bunker as Allied forces closed in on Berlin.

Erna Flegel, now 93 and living in a nursing home in northern Germany, told Britain's Guardian newspaper in an interview published this week that Hitler "had a lot of gray hair and gave the impression of a man at least 15 to 20 years older" toward the end of his life. "In the last few days, Hitler sank into himself," Flegel said. "He shook a great deal; walking was difficult for him; his right side was still very much weakened as a result of the attempt on his life (in July 1944)." With defeat imminent, Hitler, 56, killed himself and his mistress Eva Braun whom he married shortly before his death Sales Pre-owned Parts Nobody else comes close. if At 1 The all-new 268 hp 2006 M-Class exceeds the benchmarks of its pioneering predecessor and sets new ones of its own. Brilliantly innovative and supremely self-assured, the new M-Class elevates the Mercedes-Benz tradition of pure driving pleasure.

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