FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL SAYS VOTE NO ON FOSTER

WASHINGTON, May 1, 1995 -- Family Research Council Director of Communications 
Kristi Hamrick made the following statement Monday at a coalition news 
conference in the U.S. Capitol building on the nomination of Dr. Henry Foster 
for surgeon general:

"By all accounts, Dr. Henry Foster is a nice man.  And many people like him, 
including, it seems, many in the media.  In recent weeks, Dr. Foster has 
enjoyed glowing coverage.  It is the kind of coverage I am sure Justice 
Clarence Thomas or Judge Robert Bork or even C. Everett Koop would have 
enjoyed during their confirmation processes.  But the issue here is not Dr. 
Foster's likableness.  It is his policies and his pursuit of them.  Dr. Foster 
has been on the ragged edge of experimentation and nouveau policy during the 
course of his career.

"While the Supreme Court was ruling that forced sterilization could be a 
problem, he did them until the national answer was `no more.'  When his 
medical school was looking for research to perform, he brought in chemical 
abortion technologies with unknown results.  When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 
in the Casey decision that limits on abortion, like parental or court guardian 
consent, were acceptable, he got involved on a Planned Parenthood team to 
break down the firewall legally built against the 1.6 million abortions a year.

"And then there is the question of the Tuskegee syphilis studies. Family 
Research Council finds itself in the unusual position of agreeing with the 
editorial pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post. Dr. Foster's 
involvement in this blatant example of disregard for human life must be 
examined.  And, as the Post said, involvement would disqualify him for office.

"The issue here is one of character.  The question is, `What is Dr. Foster's 
criteria for protecting human life -- our lives, if he takes national office?'

"Abortion became an issue, when Clinton's Health and Human Services Department 
released Dr. Foster's biography without any mention of his long history with 
the national board of Planned Parenthood.  That is when the numbers game 
started.  Because the question was, `What else is missing?'

"Dr. Foster has embraced the failed policies of sexual revolution. Even this 
morning in the Washington Post, Dr. Foster talked about wanting to duplicate 
his `I Have a Future Program' nationwide.  But the literature for the program 
never once mentions abstinence.  It is typical of the band-aid approach to 
public policies.  Don't deal with the cause, just the effect.

"If they need a surgeon general, Americans need one who will encourage our 
national best health -- all of us -- however we are born, of whatever race, or 
ability.  Because of the troubling questions surrounding this nominee's 
record, Family Research Council is calling on Senator Kassebaum's committee to 
give an unfavorable rating and for the U.S. Senate to say no more national 
experiments on our youth -- No on the Foster nomination."

-0-                       5/1/95

/CONTACT:  Kristi Hamrick of the Family Research Council, 202-393-2100