Washington, Friday
PRESIDENT Bill Clinton's embattled choice for top medical policy
adviser pledged today to stand fast against anti-abortion groups trying
to sink his nomination and accused them of distorting his record.
''I am standing strong -- and I appreciate the strong support of the
president,'' Dr Henry Foster said as he fought to pull his nomination
for surgeon general out of political quicksand.
''My opponents say that this nomination is about abortion. I have
dedicated my medical career to taking all appropriate medical steps to
meet the health needs of my patients, and that includes performing legal
abortions,'' Foster said in a speech to an ethusiastic meeting of
medical students and faculty at the capital's George Washington
University.
He said he, like Clinton, believed that abortions should be ''safe,
legal and rare''.
Foster, a Tennessee-based obstetrician known for his work on public
health and combatting teenage pregnancy, added: ''My life's work has
been dedicated to making sure that young people don't have to face the
choice of having abortions.''
But his cause appeared to suffer a blow as he was trying to make his
case when Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware announced he would vote
against the nomination -- the first member of Clinton's Democratic party
to take that stand in the Senate, which must confirm the nomination by
majority vote.
''It was a political blunder in the extreme (to nominate Foster),''
said Biden. ''He (Clinton) shouldn't have sent him up. I'm going to vote
against him.''
Later today, Biden recanted, saying he had acted in a fit of pique.
''My comments concerning the nomination of Dr Foster were a reflection
of my anger and frustration with the way the White House has handled
this nomination,'' Biden said in a statement read by a White House
spokeswoman.
Senators including Republican Arlen Specter spoke up on Foster's
behalf. He also won endorsements from the American Medical Association,
a black doctors' group and Congress's Black Caucus. Foster, a black, met
with the caucus today.
It all added up to a rising political cross-fire that suggested this
was fast becoming another of the nomination nightmares the Clinton White
House has seen several times before. Prior embarrassments have erupted
over nominees for attorney general, defence secretary and lower posts.
In Foster's case, what appeared to be a safe choice exploded when
anti-abortion groups pounced on evidence that he had performed some
abortions during his career as an obstetrician.
Foster confirmed that he had, noting the procedure is not only legal
but a constitutional right. But he gave his critics more rope by making
vague, changing statements as to how many he had performed and under
what circumstances.
That enabled some political critics to sidestep the volatile abortion
debate per se and argue that the real issue was Foster's credibility and
the competence of White House staff work that failed to examine Foster's
abortion record.--Reuter.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article