Surgeon General Pick Shares Many Of Predecessor’s Views Nashville Ob-Gyn Worked Hard To Prevent Teen Pregnancies
President Clinton Thursday nominated Dr. Henry Foster Jr., a Nashville, Tenn., educator, obstetrician and gynecologist, as surgeon general to replace the controversial Joycelyn Elders, who was fired last December.
Foster, 61, who founded a program that distributes condoms to youths and supported an organization that provides abortion counseling, appears to share many of Elders’ views, particularly about combatting teenage pregnancy. But he is likely to operate in a much less inflammatory style than his predecessor.
“In the communities he served, Dr. Foster has won hearts and minds for his innovation and his dedication to saving the lives of young people and vulnerable people,” Clinton said in making the announcement. “He’s received numerous honors for his work in obstetrics, in dealing with sickle cell anemia and very notably in the prevention of teen pregnancy. He has shown us how one person can make a difference.”
As surgeon general, Foster would have no official policy-making authority, although the high visibility of his post would give him substantial public influence.
Foster is a former dean and acting president of Meharry Medical College, a black medical school in Tennessee and the same institution where Clinton found Dr. David Satcher, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Meharry’s focus has always been in providing health education and care for the underserved, and Dr. Foster personifies that vision,” said Martha Robinson, a Meharry official.
Foster founded the “I Have a Future Program,” based in two Nashville housing projects. It is aimed at delaying sexual activity and raising self-respect among teenagers.
Clinton said that he expects Foster to lead the administration’s recently announced national campaign to reduce teenage pregnancy.
The Nashville program begun by Foster “has been an unqualified success,” Clinton said.
In accepting the nomination, Foster said: “You can judge the character of a nation by the manner in which it deals with its children and the elderly.”
He said that his highest priorities would include assuring “healthier starts for our children,” AIDS prevention and discouraging tobacco use, particularly in young people.
He also said that he would vigorously attack the epidemic of adolescent pregnancies.
Elders was abruptly ousted after responding to a question during a public AIDS forum by saying that she thought masturbation should be discussed as part of school sex-education programs.
“Hank is a consummate politician who will in no way resemble his predecessor,” said Dr. Frank Boehm, director of obstetrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a close friend of Foster’s since 1972.
“They may share some similar viewpoints, but he will sound totally different and totally acceptable,” Boehm said.