Speaker:  Elizabeth Raymond MD, MPH

Senior Medical Associate, Gynuity Health Projects (About Dr. Raymond)

Dr. Raymond is a senior scientist at Gynuity Health Projects in New York City, a leading international women’s health research organization. Over the past 20 years, she has published over 75 peer-reviewed scientific papers on contraception, abortion, and related fields and has served as an expert witness in multiple high-profile legal cases in these areas. Her studies have been pivotal in support of FDA approval of various contraceptives and have led to numerous significant policy changes in reproductive health.

Topic: Conducting Scientific Research in a Religion-Infused World

A Scientist’s Behind-the-Scenes Insight into the Struggle to Conduct Science in the Face of Religious Opposition

On March 29, 2016, the FDA approved a revised package label for mifepristone, the primary drug used to induce medical abortion. This important update was long overdue as knowledge about the drug had advanced substantially since its initial approval in 2000. Within mere weeks, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, a leading advocate for “god-given rights”, and Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, who believes that freedom is “given to us by god”, rallied the support of 73 fellow Congressional legislators to launch an effort to harass both the FDA and the scientists involved in the research under the pretense of concern for women’s health.

Our speaker, Elizabeth Raymond, MD, MPH, is one of those scientists.  For over two decades, she has been a prominent researcher in two fields, contraception and abortion, that have both been primary targets of relentless religious interference. She will share her insider perspectives on the struggle over the labeling of mifepristone and will also relate many other experiences that illustrate the ways in which religiously motivated obstructionism disrupts and undermines important scientific research.