Thomas Allen Coburn (March 14, 1948) is a politician and U.S. Senator from the state of Oklahoma.

Coburn was born in Casper, Wyoming and graduated from Oklahoma State University. He was a physician, and a deacon in the Southern Baptist Church, until he ran for the House of Representatives as a Republican. Coburn faced a 71-year-old former principal, and defeated him by a 52%-48% margin.

In 1997, Coburn introduced an amendment (H.R. 1026) to the Social Security Act called the HIV Prevention Act of 1997. The amendment proposed a number of situations where HIV tests would be mandated or available on request and that all results of HIV tests be made available to state officials.

As a Congressman, Coburn opposed abortion and the V-chip. He kept his pledge to serve only three terms and left the house in 2001. He also earned a reputation as a maverick due to his constant battles with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Most of these stand-offs stemmed from his belief that the Republican caucus was straying from the Contract With America that had swept them into power in 1994. Specifically, Coburn was upset that term limits had not been implemented and that Republicans were continuing the pork politics they had opposed under Democratic rule.

Coburn wrote "Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders" in 2003. The book details his perspective on the intraparty debates over the Contract With America and displays his disdain for career politicians.

Coburn defeated Brad Carson to win Oklahoma's open U.S. Senate seat in the November 2004 election. Controversy has hovered around him due to him making comments critical of playing Schindler's List on NBC and calling for doctors who perform abortions to be subject to the death penalty. Also, Coburn declared the race to be one between good and evil.

The most significant controversy is the allegation that Coburn sterilized a woman without her consent on November 7, 1990 resulting in a civil malpractice suit. Coburn contends that he had her oral consent, but he did not obtain written consent. Coburn admitted that he performed the same procedure on "lots" of women. He also admitted during testimony that he charged Medicaid for the procedure, although the patient was under the age of 21. Under the applicable funding rules, the sterilization would have been ineligible for reimbursement even though it was administered as part of the same procedure (termination of an ectopic pregnancy) which saved the patient's life. The suit was ultimately dismissed with no finding of liability on Coburn's part.

External links

• Coburn campaign website (http://www.coburnforsenate.com/)
• "Medicine man" (http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/13/coburn/index.html) - Salon.com, Sept. 13, 2004