[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 23 (Monday, February 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1266]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


      SURGEON GENERAL SHOULD REPRESENT TRADITIONAL AMERICAN VALUES


  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oklahoma [Mr. Coburn] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to consider the 
characteristics that should be present in any individual nominated to 
the position of Surgeon General of the United States.
  As a physician whose entire medical career has dealt with adolescent 
sexual activity, teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, I 
know that we have had exactly the wrong leadership over the past 2 
years from Washington.
  The underlying assumptions of the safe sex policy are flat wrong and 
the statistics bear out this fallacy. The predicate of the safe sex 
policy is that our children cannot and will not act responsibly if 
given correct and factual information. In other words, our children are 
incapable of reason.
  We have not assumed this predicate in any other area of risk 
presented to our children. Look at the basis for our educational 
efforts on alcohol, tobacco, and drugs for example.
  The basis for our illogical predicate of safe sex is to rationalize 
our own lack of self control and sexual promiscuity and our children 
end up paying the price.
  If you have ever been faced with telling the parents of a 19-year-old 
female that their daughter is dying of AIDS you would truly understand 
my lack of comprehension with a vision that says to a teenager we know 
you cannot control yourself and that you are unable to make a reasoned 
choice so here is a condom.
  Mr. Speaker, we currently have a sexually transmitted disease 
epidemic that is out of control and studies now tell us that over 40 
million Americans are carrying some type of viral sexually transmitted 
disease. In my practice alone, one in three sexually active teenagers 
is carrying a sexually transmitted disease.
  Now what principles should a Surgeon General nominee possess in 
regard to the present epidemic of sexually transmitted disease and 
illegitimacy?
  I believe that at a minimum the candidate should:
  First, be dedicated to the future of our children by supporting their 
positive attributes and discouraging dangerous behavior. The foundation 
of a condom clinic is that we have failed to teach the benefits of 
abstinence and consequently we have given up;
  Second, recognize the failure of the present ``safe sex'' message;
  Third, recognize that the growth of the current AIDS epidemic is 
secondary to a failed public health policy and is directly related to 
substituting political correctness and its irrationality for a rational 
public health policy based on medical facts and the current 
epidemiology of the human immunodeficiency virus;
  Fourth, recognize that abortion is a poor alternative for any 
unwanted pregnancy;
  Fifth, recognize that all life is valuable, even when unintended, and 
that the consequences of abortion, even though legal, seriously impairs 
us as a society; and
  Sixth, recognize that illegitimacy is born out of a society which 
does not value life and consequently our costs for supporting such a 
society are a direct result of illicit sexual activity outside of a 
monogamous married relationship, that is, the traditional American 
family.
  Mr. Speaker, in conclusion I would like to say that it is high time 
that our Surgeon General represents the traditional American family and 
the values that the majority of Americans hold and voted for on 
November 8, 1994.
  I plead with our President to nominate such a person.
  

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