Surgeon General Choice Tells of Abortions : Medicine: Foster’s nomination turns controversial as he acknowledges doing about a dozen procedures. Foes vow to oppose him.

The nomination of Dr. Henry Foster Jr. to become surgeon general turned controversial Friday when the White House and the Nashville obstetrician/gynecologist acknowledged that he had performed abortions during his nearly 30-year medical career.

Foster emphasized that he delivered more than 10,000 babies during that time and probably performed fewer than a dozen abortions.

All of them were in hospitals “and were primarily to save the lives of the women or because the women had been the victims of rape or incest,” he said in a statement.

Furthermore, he added, “if abortion is provided, my wish is that it be safe, legal and rare.”

Nevertheless, abortion foes vowed to fight his confirmation.

“We’re outraged,” said Judie Brown, president of the American Life League Inc. “We plan to pressure the Senate majority leader (Bob Dole of Kansas) to do everything possible to stop the nomination.”

Although the nomination has been praised by numerous mainstream medical organizations and reproductive rights groups, conservatives raised almost immediate objections to President Clinton’s choice to succeed Dr. Joycelyn Elders. Many said that, despite his low-key style, he nevertheless shared many of Elders’ views.

Elders was ousted last December after remarking--in response to a question during a public AIDS forum--that she thought masturbation should be discussed as part of school sex education programs.

Marshall Wittmann, director of legislative affairs for the Christian Coalition, said that Clinton “has simply placed old wine in a new uniform” by nominating Foster, “who will lobby for a left-wing agenda of condom distribution in schools and tax-funded abortion.”

Foster, 61, is a former dean and acting president of Meharry Medical College, a black medical school, and founded the “I Have a Future Program” in two Nashville housing projects. The program is aimed at delaying sexual activity and raising self-respect among teen-agers.

Foster has supported condom distribution to youths and abortion counseling, but insisted Friday that “in my work with teen-agers, abstinence has always been stressed as my first priority.”

White House spokesman Mike McCurry, in response to reporters’ questions, said the President is confident that Foster’s background would see him through the confirmation process.

“Given Dr. Foster’s enormously impressive record in the area of reproductive health and the work that he has done to counsel those teen-agers who face pregnancy situations and the work he’s done to discourage people from having births out of wedlock, the President was well satisfied that that record would stand up, even to those who might criticize him from that particular perspective,” he said at a White House briefing.

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In his statement, Foster said that he served as chief of service at two major teaching institutions where “a wide variety of medical procedures and research was performed at both. To my knowledge, all were in accordance with the law and educational requirements.”

He added: “I have dedicated my life’s work to improving access to medical care and improving quality of life for women and children, a passion rooted in my early years of practice in the rural South. I have placed particular emphasis on prevention, especially in such areas as teen pregnancy, drug abuse and smoking cessation in children. . . .

“My personal goal has always been to provide education, counseling, preventive health care and contraceptive access to patients needing such services,” he added. “If abortion is provided, my wish is that it be safe, legal and rare.”

Foster’s selection has been applauded by the American Medical Assn., Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Dr. Louis Sullivan, who served as secretary of Health and Human Services during the George Bush Administration.

Despite the opposition from anti-abortion groups, reaction from the Senate--where Foster faces confirmation--has been muted.

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Earlier Friday, Dole said that Foster “sounded like a good appointment” but then laughed, declined to comment and left the room when told that Foster was an advisory board member for Planned Parenthood.

And Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) said that he hopes Clinton’s nominee “will be in the mainstream of American values, and not someone who will insult those values repeatedly,” as Elders did.

As he made the nomination Thursday, Clinton was joined by Tennessee’s newly elected Republican Sen. Bill Frist, a heart transplant surgeon, a friend and medical colleague of Foster’s from Nashville.

“I’m confident that thoughtful conservatives will have the same view of Dr. Foster as Sen. Frist does when they have the same opportunity to review his whole record,” Clinton said.

A spokesman for Frist described him as “pro-life” and opposed to abortion except “to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest.”