Physician and U.S. Surgeon General nominee Dr. Regina Benjamin, shown here with President Barack Obama on July 13, has yet to be confirmed. Benjamin founded the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic and has won national praise for her work in rural health care. (Associated Press)
(CNSNews.com) – As President Barack Obama welcomes Congress back to Washington with a joint address on his health care reform agenda and federal officials advise the public on preventing the spread of the N1H1 virus, the U.S. Surgeon General post remains unfilled.
 
In July, Obama nominated Dr. Regina Benjamin, citing the importance of picking the right person to be "America's leading spokesperson on issues of public health."
 
“And now we in Washington and across America have to refuse to give up on the goal of health care that is affordable and accessible for every last one of us,” Obama said on July 13 at the White House.
 
“We don't have to deal with hurricanes and we don't have to deal with floods and we don't have to deal with fires; all we have to do is pass a bill to make sure that the American people have a decent shot at getting the kind of choice and high-quality health care that's affordable,” Obama added.
 
“And I know that Dr. Benjamin is going to help us get there as the next Surgeon General,” Obama said.
 
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee have not yet set a date for Benjamin’s confirmation hearing. In October 2007, Health and Human Services Secretary under the Bush administration, Michael Leavitt, named Rear Admiral Steven K. Galson as acting surgeon general – a post he stills holds today.
 
Obama began his remarks when he nominated Benjamin with a pitch for health care reform.
 
“We are now closer to the goal of health care reform than we have ever been,” Obama said. “Over the last several weeks, key committees in the House and the Senate have made important and unprecedented progress on a plan that will lower costs, provide better care for patients, and curb the worst practices of the insurance companies.”
 
Over the summer recess, however, the public has soured on the health care plans offered up by Democrats in the House and the Senate – an Aug. 11 Rasmussen poll showed 44% of voters strongly oppose the health care reform effort versus 26% who strongly favor it.
 
And when confirmation hearings take place for Benjamin, the praise for a physician who gained renown for her rural medical practice in Alabama could stir controversy over the abortion issue.
 
Although abortions are not performed at Benjamin’s Bayou La Batre clinic, a White House spokesman said she was on the same page as the president on “reproductive health issues.”
 
“Like him she believes that this is an issue where it is important to try and seek common ground and come together to try and reduce the number of unintended pregnancies,” Reid Cherlin was quoted as saying in a July 14 McClatchy-Tribune story.
 
“As a physician, she is deeply committed to the philosophy of putting her patients’ needs first when it comes to providing care,” Reid added.
 
The McClatchy story was posted the same day on the Web site of the pro-abortion group NARAL under the headline “Obama’s Surgeon General Pick: A Catholic Who Backs Abortion Rights.”
 
Benjamin has not spoken publicly about the abortion issue, but in a 1996 ruling by the American Medical Association’s ruling body – which included Benjamin as a voting member – the AMA voted to reaffirm the organization’s abortion policy, which states “termination of pregnancy is a medical matter between the patient and physician, subject to the physician’s clinical judgment, the patient’s informed consent and the availability of appropriate facility.”
 
In a statement released by the AMA on Dec. 11, 1996, Benjamin commented on another part of the same ruling that encouraged more doctors to have “abortion training.”
 
“We are adopting a policy that medical school curriculum provide the legal, ethical, and psychological principles associated with abortion so students can learn all the factors involved,” Benjamin said.
 
Benjamin’s own medical education at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, was paid for by a federal program. Under the National Health Services Corps, students are given free tuition in exchange for working for an agreed upon number of years in rural areas that lack doctors.
 
In her remarks following Obama’s formal nomination, Benjamin praised the president. “And, Mr. President, thank you for putting health care reform at the top of your domestic agenda,” Benjamin said. “My hope, if confirmed as Surgeon General, is to be America’s doctor, America’s family physician.
 
“As we work toward a solution to this health care crisis, I promise to communicate directly with the American people to help guide them through whatever changes may come with health care reform,” Benjamin said.
 
Benjamin has told reporters who have sought comment on abortion and other issues that she has been advised not to speak publicly until after she is confirmed as the next surgeon general.