Surgeon General Satcher Quits
Melanie Hunter, CNSNews.com
Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2002
U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher is leaving his post at the White House to return to his alma mater Morehouse College, where he will lead a new center devoted to equal access to health care, wire reports said Monday.
The Morehouse School of Medicine planned a news conference today to announce Satcher as the first director of its National Center for Primary Care. A spokeswoman for Satcher, Cynthia Bennett, said the surgeon general would announce his plans today.
Satcher drew criticism from the White House last year when his office released a report that said there was no evidence showing there is success in abstinence-only programs that make no mention of birth control. The report called for schools to encourage sexual abstinence but also teach the value of birth control. It also found that there was no evidence that a homosexual person could become heterosexual.
Conservatives demanded Satcher's resignation, and a spokesman for President Bush noted that the report came from "a surgeon general that he did not appoint."
Satcher holds a bachelor's degree from Morehouse. He was also a professor at the historically black college before becoming director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the job he held before his appointment by former President Bill Clinton.
He announced last year his plans to step down once his four-year term ends Feb. 13. Satcher's term as the nation's 16th surgeon general was marked by a focus on suicide, mental health and smoking prevention.
Copyright CNSNews.com
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