CUSTOM COMPUTING
6815 DICKINSON COURT
TAMPA FLORIDA 33634-4707
CIS: 71327,1251
Mon 08-30-1993
Here are some more facts about Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Clinton's nominee for
Surgeon General. Previous posts chronicling her past statements can be
found here in ELDERS.TXT and ELDER2.TXT. We believe she is not morally
fit to hold the highest medical office in the United States.
More importantly, we believe his nomination of Elders is just one more
example of Bill Clinton's moral fitness to be the President. We've said
it before, and we'll say it again, "This man is totally devoid of any
morals." Just look at the people with whom he has surrounded himself and
the issues that he deemed to be the ones with which he must FIRST deal:
Gays in the Military, lifting the ban on fetal research, lifting the gag
rule on counseling for women seeking abortions, lifting the ban on abortions
in military hospitals, the appointment of a militant lesbian to his cabinet.
Someone asked, "Where is the soul of this man." We think it is time to ask
that question again. We also think that question should be asked of the
media people who continue to defend and support him.
Back to Dr. Elders. Here is more.
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HER SALARY ARRANGEMENT AS ARKANSAS HEALTH DIRECTOR. The State of Arkansas
places a cap on how much state employees can be paid. For several years
the Health Department has transferred the money it has available to pay
Dr. Elders to the University of Arkansas Medical School (UAMS). UAMS
has then paid her a considerably higher sum as a professor of pediatrics,
even though her position as state health director is a full-time, full-
year job.
HER ALLEGEDLY LAX ENFORCEMENT OF A BAN ON STATE FUNDING OF CONTRACEPTIVE
DISTRIBUTION AT SCHOOL-BASED CLINICS. In 1991, the Arkansas legislature
adopted a prohibition on the use of state money to distribute contraceptives
at school-based clinics. Shortly after the restriction was adopted, Dr.
Elders announced that the school-based clinics would continue to distribute
contraceptives using federal and local money. But a pending lawsuit filed
by Rep. Tim Hutchinson (R-AR) alleges that state funds are being used in
violation of the ban.
HER CONDUCT AS A MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF THE NATIONAL BANK OF ARKANSAS.
Dr. Elders recently settled a lawsuit filed against her and four other
former directors of this bank. According to the NATIONAL REVIEW (April
26, 1993), the suit alleged that she had voted to give herself and other
directors an unsecured $230,000 line of credit and that she and her
colleagues had improperly moved to transfer money to an Illinois savings
and loan to cover bad lending practices in which they had engaged.
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. MALAK. In September, 1991, Dr. Elders named
Dr. Fahmy Malak, an embattled medical examiner for the State of Arkansas,
to a senior post in her department. Dr. Malak's appointment cam despite
a department-wide hiring freeze.
Dr. Malak had been under fire since 1985 for a host of controversial
autopsy results, several of which were later reversed by grand juries.
Among his more maligned findings were that a man shot five times in the
chest had committed suicide, that two teenagers run over by a train had
fallen asleep on the tracks after smoking marijuana, that a man whom a
grand jury later ruled had been murdered had died accidentally while
strangling himself during a sexual act, and that a deputy coroner who had
ordered life support withdrawn from a brain-dead patient had committed
murder. Dr. Malak later apologized for falsely accusing the deputy
coroner, a charge that arose because Dr. Malak had misread a notation
in the deceased patient's medical chart.
Elders, long one of Dr. Malak's staunchest defenders, noted that, "There
are a lot of medical symbols," and said of Malak, "If you don't make
mistakes, you're not doing anything.".
If you've read our previous posts, you know Dr. Elders attacked the
Catholic church. Here is the text of a letter sent to Sen. Alphonse
D'Amato (R-NY) by John Cardinal O'Connor, Archbishop of New York.
August 5, 1993
Dear Senator D'Amato,
I write to you as one deeply disturbed by remarks attributed to the
nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, revealing substantial
animosity toward the Catholic Church and Catholics generally. Dr. Elders
is quoted as stating: "The first 400 years black people had their freedom
aborted and the Church said nothing. The way of life for the Native
American as aborted: the Church was silent. We attempted to eradicate
a whole race of people through the Holocaust, and the Church as silent.
. . . Look at who's fighting the pro-choice movement; a celibate, male-
dominated Church."
Catholics throughout American history have suffered from the effects
of religious bigotry. It is a blot on our country's human rights record.
Such blatant and broad sweeping attacks as have been attributed to Dr.
Elders would be troubling on the lips of any citizen. To hear them from
one appointed to a national pulpit is even more profoundly disturbing.
This is particularly true considering that the stature of the Office of
the Surgeon General is great -- particularly in recent years in the
midst of a deepening national crisis over the effects of sexual
irresponsibility.
Dr. Elders has also expressed contempt for the millions of Americans
who participate in the human rights struggle for the the unborn, and
and the disabled. She purportedly scorns pro-life Americans as having
a " love affair with the fetus," and is quoted as saying that they
"love little babies, as long they're in someone else's uterus, rather
than caring about children after they're born.".
One traditionally associates the profession of medicine with special
concern for the small and defenseless human being. Yet nowhere do I
hear Dr. Elders acknowledge the slightest good will, the slightest
compassion toward the child in the womb. Her alleged statements
regarding unborn Down's Syndrome children are most disquieting in this
regard. She is also quoted as saying that "abortion has reduced the
number of children afflicted with severe defects: the number of Down's
Syndrome infants in Washington State in 1976 was 64% lower than it
would have been without legal abortion." Apparently Dr. Elders regards
the destruction of such children through abortion as part of the success
story of modern medicine. As one who has spent many years of his life
working with and for the retarded, I am deeply troubled by such an
attitude.
Dr. Elders seems also to have clearly expressed an intent not only
to continue, but to intensify the utterly failed policy of offering
contraception freely to teenagers. Twenty years of this practice has
failed to improve our children's health and well-being. In fact, they are
associated with substantial declines in the quality of their lives, with
increases in teenage sexual activity, teen abortions, sexually transmitted
diseases, and out-of-wedlock pregnancies. Yet nowhere do I see Dr.
Elders required to assume the burden of proof as to why 20 years of
failed social policy should be followed by 4 more.
Thank you for your vote on August 3 on the Nickles Amendment to the
Treasury/Postal Appropriations Bill. It was a tragedy that the
substance of Senator Nickles' proposal did not receive the full deliber-
ations it deserved, but I thank you for your part in seeking to obtain
Senate consideration. In future votes on the Hyde Amendment and National
Health Care, I hope that you will reflect on the conscience problems
inherent in requiring any taxpayer, any employer, any employee, to
contribute any amount, no matter how small, to an act they acknowledge
to be nothing less than the deliberate destruction of innocent human life.
I do hope you will consider the points I have raised. Considering the
crisis of values our nation is now facing, I do not believe that concerns
about religious intolerance and moral responsibility are trivial. I look
forward to your reply.
Senator Don Nickles (R-OK) spoke at some length on the floor of the
Senate about Dr. Elders and her radical ideas on health care. Following
are excerpts from his presentation.
"She went further when she told the Labor Committee: 'Abortion was the single
most important factor in the significant decrease in neonatal mortality
between 1964 and 1977.' Dr. Elders says that abortion decreases infant
mortality. Well, I suppose it does. If your life is ended before you are
born, there is absolutely no chance you will die after birth. So she is
correct. But, what a solution."
"In the February 16, 1993, edition of the Washington Post, it is reported
that she keeps an 'Ozark Rubber Plant' on her desk. 'Its stalks,' according
to the Washington Post, 'are sprouting condoms, and an attached note reads:
'Blooms mostly at night. Blooms vary in length, depending on owner. Blooms
may wilt in chilly atmosphere.' I do not think that being flippant about
condoms and condom distribution is really the kind of attitude we really
want a Surgeon General to have."
"Elders' pay has come under scrutiny because she earns much more than the
maximum salary established for her health department job by the State
legislature. The legal maximum salary set for the health department
director is $76,440 a year, but Dr. Elders makes about $103,000 a year.
Her pay comes from both the health department and the University of
Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where she formerly worked a a pediatric
endocrinologist."
[UPLOADER COMMENT] Senator Nickles went on detail how her Arkansas
compensation was challenged by two different Attorneys-general of AR.
He also detailed how she had been paid both by the State of Arkansas and
the federal Department of Health and Human Services. He also chronicled
the issue of Dr. Elders and her husband having a nurse for her mother-in-
law and not paying taxes on the nurse. Throughout his presentation, he
brought up all the issues we have posted here and had them all put in
the Congressional Record.
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Although we are adamantly opposed to appointment of this woman to
Surgeon General of the United States, this is more than a reflection
of Joycelyn Elders. This is also a reflection of the man who nominated
her, Bill Clinton.
This information was provided by Oklahoma Senator Don Nickles
