Medical Group Upset President Obama Will Remove Abortion Conscience Clause

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 27, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Medical Group Upset President Obama Will Remove Abortion Conscience Clause

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 27
, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A leading medical group is disappointed that White House officials have indicated that President Barack Obama will likely rescind the Provider Conscience Clause. That’s the Bush rule put in place to provide more enforcement for laws protecting medical staff and center from having to do abortions.

David Stevens, the head of the Christian Medical Association, one of the groups seeking to stop the pro-abortion lawsuit file to overturn the regulations, told LifeNews.com the Obama administration had shown no reason for rescinding the rules.

"The Obama administration claims, without offering a shred of statistical evidence, that the regulation has ‘created confusion’ and will somehow hinder access to healthcare," he told LifeNews.com.

"What can be clearer than not using federal funds to force healthcare professionals to violate longstanding principles of medical ethics like the Hippocratic Oath, which guided medicine for over two millennia?" Stevens asked.

Stevens says the Obama administration will drive out medical staff and centers from the medical profession by reducing the protects those who don’t want to do abortions have.

"The real threat to healthcare access is driving out every healthcare professional who conscientiously practices medicine according to life-affirming ethical standards," he said. "Infringing on their right to practice medicine according to these life-affirming ethical standards will force them to leave the profession and to shut down the hospitals and clinics."

Stevens said an informal survey of the members of his group found over 40 percent report facing pressure to violate their moral or religious beliefs.

"Physicians report losing positions and promotions because of their life-affirming views. Residents report losing training privileges because they refused to do abortions," he said. "Medical students report changing career tracks away from obstetrics for fear of pressure to do abortions."

Stevens says the concerns are exacerbated because the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has officially asserted that it expects every obstetrician to participate in abortions, either through procedure or referral.

"We hear a lot of rhetoric from abortion advocates about the government not interfering with the physician-patient relationship. Why is this argument no longer employed when the physician and the patient disagree with abortion on demand?" Stevens asks.

"It would appear that for all the abortion ‘choice’ rhetoric, ‘choice’ is really a one-way street. When it comes to pro-life individuals, abortion choice quickly turns into abortion mandate," he told LifeNews.com.

"President Obama and other abortion advocates would like to maintain the myth of their moderation on abortion, talking much about ‘reducing the need for abortion.’ Yet they have no tolerance for moderate abortion policies like informing parents when their children seek an abortion, banning the essentially infanticidal partial-birth abortions, or protecting the civil rights of healthcare professionals who follow the Hippocratic Oath," Stevens concluded.

Related web sites:
Christian Medical Association – https://www.cmda.org

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