[Pflienews] PharmFacts E-News Update: MD group protests ACOG dissing rights of conscience

Sun Mar 16 07:46:28 MDT 2008

*PharmFacts E-News Update -- 16 Mar 2008 AD

*
*PFLI Comment: Unfortunately over the years, AAPLOG has not taken a 
definitive position or waged battle for conscience rights, 
contraception, cloning, etc. ACOG, the secular Ob/GYn group, has taken a 
hard-line pro-abortion stance for decades and redefined pregnancy out of 
thin air in the 1960s as "implantation" rather than the scientific 
moment of fertilization/conception/creation (the latter if done by any 
artificial means).
*
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*
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*Physicians Group to Review Policy Saying Ob/Gyns Should Refer for 
Abortions*

*Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- *The national organization for OBGYNs 
will re-examine a policy on Monday saying all doctors, including those 
who are pro-life, should refer women to abortion centers. When it does, 
a leading pro-life group for physicians says it should scrap the idea 
and encourage doctors to follow their consciences.

As LifeNews.com has reported <http://www.lifenews.com/nat3526.html>, the 
American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) has been criticized 
heavily for releasing the statement last year entitled "The Limits of 
Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Medicine."

The paper targets pro-life physicians, insisting that doctors who object 
to doing abortions should refer patients to physicians who will do them.

ACOG also requests that pro-life doctors move their practices closer to 
abortion businesses so women can have a shorter drive to get an abortion 
when their physicians refuse to perform or refer for one.

Because of significant protests form members of Congress, physicians and 
pro-life groups, the ACOG ethics committee is reportedly slated on 
Monday to revisit its November 2007 declaration.

The ACOG ethics committee should change its course and defend the 
conscience rights of doctors who refuse to perform or refer for 
abortions, says Christian Medical Association vice-president Dr. Gene Rudd.

"The right to refuse on moral and ethical grounds to participate in the 
killing of another human being is ... based on long-standing, objective 
medical ethics and moral principles," Rudd told LifeNews.com.

"Since ACOG represents the vast majority of obstetricians and 
gynecologists in this country, the organization should be advocating for 
the decision-making rights of all of its members--not just of those who 
favor abortions," he added.

Rudd says the decision has a monumental effect on doctors, since ACOG 
ethical positions are formally linked to physician board certification.

If ACOG refuses to protest conscience rights, Rudd told LifeNews.com the 
group would "threaten the livelihoods of thousands of pro-life 
obstetricians and gynecologists."

"ACOG membership stands to drop dramatically once its pro-life members 
realize that their organization is actually taking steps to undermine 
their ability to practice," he explained. "The last thing the women of 
this country need is for yet more obstetricians to leave the field."

Another [...] medical group, the American Association of ProLife 
Obstetricians and Gynecologists [AAPLOG], has also called on ACOG to 
reverse course.

"This is a raw power play to cripple, and ultimately eliminate from 
practice, those doctors who hold a conscience conviction on the sanctity 
of human life," AAPLOG spokesman Dr. Joe DeCook told LifeNews.com.

He said ACOG should be honoring those who "refuse to have a part in 
doing, or referring for, the elective, deliberate taking of an unborn 
human life" and called the group's actions "a battering ram, to force 
pro-life doctors into pro-choice compliance."

Last month, CMA drafted and coordinated a letter signed by leading 
national pro-life organizations, including [PFLI] on ACOG to rescind its 
November statement.

Members of the U.S. Congress, led by obstetrician Rep. Phil Gingrey have 
also called upon ACOG to explain its controversial ethical statement.

/Printed from: http://www.lifenews.com/nat3801.html/

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PFLI supports pharmacist rights of conscience NOT to be forced to 
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