Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 12, 1995 TAG: 9502140066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
White House press secretary Mike McCurry said the information was available to administration officials before Clinton's selection of Dr. Henry Foster. He said Foster, in scholarly writings, had ``eloquently'' explained his conduct in the context of medical thinking for that time.
``We wanted to know more about the circumstances of this, what the medical practices were at the time,'' McCurry said. ``We looked into the matter.''
Administration officials said Foster, along with the mainstream medical community, no longer considers sterilization of retarded women by hysterectomy to be appropriate.
The administration volunteered the names of prominent doctors who said it had been accepted medical practice decades ago to perform hysterectomies on severely retarded women for hygienic reasons and for sterilization.
``There have been many changes over that 25 to 30 years in the care of all patients,'' said Dr. George Wilbanks, president-elect of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. ``He's changed with the times.''
According to an article in the Southern Medical Journal, Foster performed 485 hysterectomies from 1963 to 1973 at the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital in Tuskegee, Ala., 82 of them on women who had a normal uterus.
Six of those were listed as having been done for sterilization, but it was unclear if the women were mentally retarded. The others had complicating conditions that led to the hysterectomies.
The administration is promising to push ahead with Foster's nomination despite opposition from anti-abortion forces upset that he performed 39 abortions during his decades as a obstetrician-gynecologist. Some senators also have raised concern about Foster's credibility because of shifting accounts of how many abortions he performed.
Foster has defended a woman's right to an abortion and stressed that most of the abortions he performed were in cases of rape, incest or medical necessity. He said his life's work has been to discourage young people from becoming parents too soon.
The criticism continued Saturday nonetheless. Commentator Patrick Buchanan told the Conservative Political Action Committee the nomination should be rejected because ``any man who performs abortions is not morally qualified to stand in the bully pulpit of surgeon general of the United States.''
Foster's nomination has not been formally submitted to the Senate because an FBI background check has not been completed. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to comment Saturday on the status of the FBI review but called Foster's credentials ``very impressive.''
by CNB