FRIDAY MAY 26, 1995
"This nomination now moves from pure (if there is such a thing) Senate politics to presidential politics and posturing," said NOW Action Vice President Rosemary Dempsey. "Bob Dole shouldn't flex his political muscles when he he doesn't have to. And Phil Gramm ought to listen to other Republicans. They would rather flex their political muscles by attempting to vote Dr. Foster down.
"We would love to go into the 1996 campaign season with senators on record regarding legal abortion and one plank of the so-called `Christian' Coalition's agenda," she said.
NOW will activate its Action Alert Network to provide grassroots support for a full Senate vote on Foster. In recent months, NOW leaders have also written letters of support for Foster to the administration and members of Congress.
"Hypocrisy was the order of the day today among some of the Republicans on the committee, " said Dempsey. "They tried to smear Dr. Foster by unfairly misrepresenting his record when they should have just admitted they were really representing the most conservative of their own constituents.
"This nomination is about a legal medical procedure, pure and simple," she said. "And to the extent it has been clouded by the supposedly `badly-damaged' office of Surgeon General itself, let's remember that damage is is due to Victorian, right-wing squealing about a Black woman totally committed to the health and safety of all children. That's what brought about Dr. Jocelyn Elder's political demise, not anything wrong with the content of her message.
"We will continue to fight this kind of misinformation, media manipulation and deceit disguised as ` Christian' concern," she said.