Dr. Joycelyn Elders would never be accused of speaking any way but frankly.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Dr. Joycelyn Elders would never be accused of speaking any way but frankly.
The former surgeon general to the Clinton administration and the first black person to hold the position is best remembered for her controversial statements about sexuality and birth control. She backed the distribution of condoms in schools and suggested students might also be taught about masturbation.
Fifteen years after President Clinton fired her from her post, the 75-year-old Elders is still plainspoken and brassy.
"Education," she said, "is the best contraception."
Elders was the keynote speaker for the abortion rights group WV Free's annual Roe V. Wade Benefit Gala, held Wednesday night at Beni Kedem Shrine Center in Charleston.
WV Free is a statewide coalition supporting reproductive rights. The annual gala marks the 1973 Supreme Court decision preventing states from outlawing abortion.
As part of WV Free's celebration, Elders joked, expanded upon, and explained some of the statements she'd made in the early 1990s, which exploded in the media and infuriated some people. For her part, she was unapologetic.
At the time the country was dealing with the explosion of the AIDS epidemic, as well as growing teen pregnancy - problems, she says, that may have declined for a time, but have never gone away and are showing signs of resurging.
"I was never about abortion," she said, "but about preventing unplanned pregnancy."
Her approach was about common sense and dialogue, not fostering controversy and divisiveness, she said.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Dr. Joycelyn Elders would never be accused of speaking any way but frankly.
The former surgeon general to the Clinton administration and the first black person to hold the position is best remembered for her controversial statements about sexuality and birth control. She backed the distribution of condoms in schools and suggested students might also be taught about masturbation.
Fifteen years after President Clinton fired her from her post, the 75-year-old Elders is still plainspoken and brassy.
"Education," she said, "is the best contraception."
Elders was the keynote speaker for the abortion rights group WV Free's annual Roe V. Wade Benefit Gala, held Wednesday night at Beni Kedem Shrine Center in Charleston.
WV Free is a statewide coalition supporting reproductive rights. The annual gala marks the 1973 Supreme Court decision preventing states from outlawing abortion.
As part of WV Free's celebration, Elders joked, expanded upon, and explained some of the statements she'd made in the early 1990s, which exploded in the media and infuriated some people. For her part, she was unapologetic.
At the time the country was dealing with the explosion of the AIDS epidemic, as well as growing teen pregnancy - problems, she says, that may have declined for a time, but have never gone away and are showing signs of resurging.
"I was never about abortion," she said, "but about preventing unplanned pregnancy."
Her approach was about common sense and dialogue, not fostering controversy and divisiveness, she said.
WV Free also honored Nancy Tolliver, director of the West Virginia Perinatal Partnership, with the Champion Of Choice Award. Tolliver, a registered nurse, has been an advocate and activist for reproductive rights for women in West Virginia for more than 35 years.
In her acceptance of the award, Tolliver said, "The right to choose is fundamental to dignity and for the ability of women to shape their lives."
The group's executive director, Margaret Chapman, and group leaders looked back over the past year. They thanked supporters and acknowledged the national climate on the abortion issue had changed substantially with the election of Barack Obama as president.
But House Judiciary Carrie Webster, in her introduction of Elders, said the issue of reproductive rights was not going to go away.
Chapman said state legislators introduced over 50 anti-abortion rights bills this past year.
"That's down from over 70," she joked.
But for the fourth session in a row, none of them passed, she said.
Reach Bill Lynch at ly...@wvgazette.com
or 304-348-5195.
Post a comment
Those writers apparenlty consider themselves God.
No--some people are not so dimwitted. Knowledge does work, as studies of anti-pregnancy programs show.