Another battle appears to be brewing over a top nominee of President Clinton.
A number of conservative groups are mobilizing to block the president’s choice for surgeon general, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, asserting that she wants to bring sex education to kindergartners. Her defenders contend that the religious Right is trying to smear one of the most innovative thinkers on sexual responsibility for the young.
Elders, a pediatrician who was director of the Arkansas Health Department when Clinton was governor there, would succeed President George Bush’s appointee, Antonia Novello, as the Public Health Service official who serves as the president’s top medical adviser.
Elders has a reputation for being an outspoken proponent of sex education and AIDS prevention programs among elementary-school children to promote better public health and to inhibit unwanted pregnancies.
Elders, who has been credited with upgrading programs on prenatal care and childhood immunization in Arkansas, also favors abortion rights and the distribution of Norplant, a surgically implanted birth control device, to prostitutes to prevent pregnancies.
White House officials say they are confident they have a comfortable margin of support for Elders on the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, which will hold hearings on her nomination on Friday. The committee has 10 Democratic members and 7 Republicans, and none of the Democrats has shown any inclination yet to vote against her.
But given the difficulties encountered recently with the failed nomination of Lani Guinier to head the Justice Department’s civil rights division, the White House is not taking any chances. Officials last week were lining up a broad range of endorsements for Elders, who would be the first black woman to serve as surgeon general.
A White House document lists 74 groups, ranging from the American Medical Association to the National Urban League, that are backing her.
Jan Parshall, a spokeswoman for Concerned Women of America, which was founded in 1979 to oppose the feminist movement and claims to have 600,000 members in 50 states, said her group was leading the charge against the nomination. The group is being assisted by the Christian Coalition, the Traditional Values Coalition and the Family Research Council.
“We cannot afford to let Dr. Elders do to America what she did to Arkansas,” Parshall said. “She believes in comprehensive sexuality education beginning in kindergarten. These are children, many of whom don’t know their colors and numbers yet, and she would propose violating their innocence and modesty.
“That is tantamount to educational child abuse. It has not worked in Arkansas to reduce teen pregnancies, and it won’t work on the country. America needs a second opinion on the position of surgeon general.”
Avis LaVelle, a public affairs official at the Department of Health and Human Services, the parent agency of the Public Health Service, said the president would stand behind Elders.
“President Clinton has known her for years. He knows her views. He wants her to become surgeon general,” LaVelle said, “and we are prepared to do whatever is necessary to secure her nomination.”
White House officials say that while they see no problem within the Labor and Human Resources Committee, they do expect a fight on the floor of the Senate when it votes on the nomination sometime before the congressional summer recess, which begins Aug. 5. But unlike Guinier, White House officials say, Elders enjoys strong support among conservative Democrats, including Sens. David Boren of Oklahoma and David Pryor and Dale Bumpers, both of Arkansas.
“I guarantee you that by the time she finishes her testimony, anyone who votes against her will be labeled anti-child,” one White House official said. “She supports the things the overwhelming number of American people support-to improve the lives of children.”
Taking note of opposition to Elders, HHS Secretary Donna Shalala defended the nominee in a statement that said: “Those who would portray Dr. Elders as being radical or out of touch with the desires of the American people are distorting her record in an effort to prove their claims. Dr. Elders supports comprehensive health training for our nation’s children, but that does not mean inappropriate sex education topics for young children, as her critics suggest.”
