Pro-Life Doctors Group Challenges OBGYN Org on Abortion Conscience Rights 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 20, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A national organization for pro-life OBGYNS is challenging the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) over a new policy saying all doctors, including those who are pro-life, should refer women to abortion centers. The American Association of ProLife Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) objects to the guidelines.
ACOG released the position 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.
But. Dr. Joe DeCook of AAPLOG says the ACOG board has gone further and, last month, published revised standards for doctors seeking recertification — to maintain professional reputation in good standing.
The revised standards are tied to ACOG Ethics compliance, and could wind up hurting pro-life physicians or others who don’t want to be involved in doing abortions.
"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," he 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."
AAPLOG has adopted a new position statement in response to ACOG saying the group’s ethics committee "does not understand the strength and depth of a conscience conviction against the elective, deliberate taking of an unborn human life."
"This is not a negotiable issue for those who hold this conviction," the group concludes.
Related web sites:
American Association of ProLife Obstetricians and Gynecologists – https://www.aaplog.org
