Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 8, 1995                   TAG: 9502080073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

ATTACK ESCALATES ON SURGEON GENERAL PICK

The charge was the latest in a string of disclosures imperiling the nomination of Foster, a gynecologist and obstetrician from Tennessee who the White House had hoped would be a less controversial figure than former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders.

If the president decides to stick with Foster, he will face a contentious debate about abortion with the new GOP-controlled Senate. If he abandons Foster, questions again will be raised about his commitment to his nominees and the administration's thoroughness in checking their backgrounds.

``The White House has badly mishandled a nomination in which they should have been sensitive to the issues that would be raised,'' said Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan. Abortion, she said, ``should not be a litmus test issue regarding Dr. Foster, but whether the White House or myself or anyone else believes it should be, it is.'' Another abortion-rights supporter, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said: ``I am very much concerned about the allegations that Dr. Foster misrepresented his record. If the issue is veracity and character, that may be a basis for disqualification.''

Last week, Foster said he had performed ``fewer than a dozen pregnancy terminations'' in three decades as an obstetrician-gynecologist, but recent disclosures suggest the figure may have been much higher. Before Foster's nomination was announced, an administration official told Kassebaum that Foster had performed only one abortion. Kassebaum is a key figure because she heads the Senate committee that will consider Foster's nomination.

The National Right to Life anti-abortion organization charged Tuesday that Foster had headed research on a drug to induce early abortions on at least 59 women in the early 1980s.

The drug study, financed by Upjohn Pharmaceutical Co., involved administering prostaglandin drugs in the form of vaginal suppositories to women who were as much as eight weeks pregnant. The drug was not subsequently produced for marketing.

The White House said it was aware when it nominated Foster of his work on the FDA-approved drug trials.