Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 9, 1995 TAG: 9502100081
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
\ For abortion-rights supporters, it wasn't supposed to be this way.
Two years ago, they were elated. They had gained representation in Congress in 1992, dubbed the Year of the Woman. A sympathetic president was in the White House. As a bold sign of that heady, new power, Bill Clinton undid several of President Reagan and Bush's anti-abortion decisions on his first full day in office.
But two years later, the fight over Clinton's choice for surgeon general dramatizes just how much the political climate has changed.
The nomination of Dr. Henry Foster Jr. is in jeopardy because of a furor over how many times he performed a legal procedure - abortion.
Foster's nomination is also in trouble because questions have been raised about his truthfulness. Abortion opponents have distributed information indicating he may have been involved in many more abortions than he initially cited.
But activists on both sides of the abortion issue say the real point of contention is abortion itself.
``The Foster nomination is just the first fight,'' said Donna Singletary, government relations director for the National Abortion Federation. ``The November election - the 1994 purge - caused a tectonic plate shift. There is a strong realignment in Congress.''
A Republican landslide in November brought at least 39 abortion opponents to the House and five to the Senate, giving anti-abortion forces a potential majority in Congress.
``We're not on top of the hill anymore,'' said Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. ``After Clinton's election, pro-choice Americans fell into a very deep complacency. Everyone thought everything will be fine.
``Two years later, there has been such a dramatic backward leap. The right wing is in power. This nomination has opened the door for the radical right to move their social agenda to wage war on physicians and make abortion unavailable.''
In fact, abortion foes sound as upbeat today as their opponents did two years ago.
``We are on an upswing,'' said Joe Scheidler, executive director of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League. ``We got so many actual pro-life people in. We are looking for some changes. We have a lot of hope. This Foster thing came at the right time.''
Scheidler and others note that even the White House and Foster are reading the more conservative political climate.
``Why doesn't he just say, `Hey, abortion is the law of the land, it's as good as Juicy Fruit gum. I did them,''' Scheidler said. ``Instead, they are taking the tack that the more abortions he did, the worse it was. That's good for us. It puts abortion back in a pejorative category.''
Consequently, abortion-rights activists say they fear Congress will end federally funded Medicaid coverage of abortions for poor women who are pregnant because of rape or incest.
Abortion-rights supporters also worry legislators will try to remove coverage of abortion from federal employees' health care plans or eliminate abortion as a service in overseas military hospitals.
And they are concerned that Congress might try to reinstate a ``gag rule'' that would prevent doctors at federally funded clinics from discussing abortion with their patients. Further, there could be a fight over whether Congress pays for the Freedom of Access to Clinics law that is supposed to protect doctors and employees at abortion clinics.
by CNB