Rights Groups Criticize Foster’s Opponents for Their ‘Politics of Abortion’ : Senate: The surgeon general nominee debate is about right wing’s hold on GOP presidential hopefuls, supporter says. Others say his character is at issue.

Only a few days before a key Senate committee is slated to begin hearings on the nomination of embattled Surgeon General designee Henry W. Foster Jr., medical and reproductive rights groups Friday attacked Foster’s opponents for practicing “the politics of abortion.”

Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, said at a press conference that the months-long debate about Foster has not been about his professional qualifications but “about the right wing’s hold on many Republican presidential candidates.”

She was referring to the declared opposition of Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who has threatened to keep the nomination from reaching the Senate floor, and Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), who has promised to filibuster if it does. Both senators are seeking the GOP nomination.

But opponents of Foster insisted that “the question of character is why Dr. Foster is not the best candidate” for the post. The conservative Family Research Council, in written testimony submitted to the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee earlier in the week, called “doubt . . . the essence of the Foster nomination.”

The choice of Foster--a 61-year-old physician who founded a popular Nashville program to combat teen-age pregnancy--has been controversial since he was named Feb. 2 to replace Dr. Joycelyn Elders, whom President Clinton fired Dec. 9.

Questions arose about whether Foster had understated the number of abortions he had performed during his nearly 40-year career. At first he said that he had performed fewer than a dozen. Later, he said he had not carefully checked his records and acknowledged that the correct figure was more than three times the original number.

Questions also were raised about his performance of hysterectomies decades ago on nonconsenting mentally retarded women and about when he first became aware of a decades-long controversial syphilis study in Tuskegee, Ala., where available treatment was withheld from infected men. Foster, practicing in Tuskegee at the time, was an officer of the local medical society.

The Senate committee has scheduled its confirmation hearing Tuesday with Foster as the only witness. Although Clinton has vowed to stand behind Foster, both sides have acknowledged that the nomination remains in deep trouble.

One GOP source on the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee said the White House has been told on numerous occasions by committee members that the nomination faces an uphill battle.

Nevertheless, “they (White House officials) clearly have decided that this (position on Foster) is politically to their advantage,” he said. “Unfortunately, Dr. Foster, fairly or not, becomes the first real victim of the ’96 presidential race.”

Some observers have speculated that the White House will withdraw the nomination if Foster loses in committee. Even if the committee defeats Foster, it still could send the nomination to the full Senate with a negative recommendation or with no recommendation.

Sens. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), James M. Jeffords (R-Vt.), and Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-Kan.), who chairs the committee, are considered the “swing” votes on the GOP-dominated committee.

Michelman of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, said if the “anti-choice minority succeeds in barring from public office doctors who perform abortions, it will send a chilling message to every medical student and doctor who considers providing abortion services: Perform abortions, risk punishment.”

But the Family Research Council, in its testimony, said the nation deserves a surgeon general with “an unblemished record of candor and truth-telling,” adding: “the nominee himself has been unable to provide a consistent and accurate account of where he has stood and what he has done.”

The Administration has maintained that the campaign against Foster, who is African-American, has been driven by conservatives beholden to anti-abortion groups. The Administration says that, if confirmed, Foster would concentrate on programs to curb teen-age pregnancy.