The American College of OB-GYNs has refused to defend its claim that aborting unborn babies is “essential” medical care in response to a debate request from a pro-life medical organization.
The invitation came from the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) after the American College of OB-GYNs (ACOG) kicked out pro-life doctors at the last minute from a national conference in February.
According to the Washington Examiner, ACOG president, Dr. Maureen Phipps, responded to the debate request this spring by telling the pro-life doctors group that it “will not debate abortion as an essential part of reproductive health care.” Apparently, the public is just supposed to accept its claim unquestioningly.
“… we will continue to affirm that the role of abortion in our patients’ lives is settled science,” Phipps wrote in a statement provided to the newspaper.
Dr. Christina Francis, president of the pro-life AAPLOG, which represents thousands of doctors, said anyone who believes a topic has no room for debate probably should not be practicing medicine.
Speaking with the Examiner, Francis said ACOG’s refusal “hearkens back to people being so confident that the Earth was flat that they considered that settled science, and the only way that we discovered that wasn’t the case was through someone questioning that narrative, questioning that status quo, and looking for better answers.”
Abortion remains a widely controversial issue, and Francis said the “vast majority” of OB-GYNs refuse to do elective abortions, so calling it “settled science” is nonsense.
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Her organization invited ACOG leaders to debate whether “induced abortion” should be considered good medicine at the Duke University Kenan Institute for Ethics Civil Discourse Project. In the request, the pro-life doctors group emphasized that “scientific progress and advancement depend on the free exchange of ideas.”
Francis said most medical evidence, including research studies and best practices, confirm that “elective abortions do not improve the health outcomes of our patients, and in many cases, actively worsen the health outcomes. What ACOG is trying to do is make it appear that all OB-GYNs feel this way, when that’s very clearly not the case.”
ACOG has been censoring pro-life doctors, too. In late February, the group kicked out the American Association of Pro-Life OB-GYNs’ exhibit at the last minute from an annual conference in Maryland about educating up-and-coming obstetricians and gynecologists.
Francis said her organization has exhibited at the conference for the past 15 years, and they received approval for their exhibit again this year. However, once she arrived at the event, she said ACOG, which is run by pro-abortion activists, informed her that it had revoked approval for their pro-life exhibit.
Later, a spokesperson for ACOG confirmed to the Catholic News Agency that they now only “welcome exhibitors and meeting participants that align with ACOG’s and APGO’s shared commitment to the advancement of evidence-based, scientific information.”
Responding at the time, Francis called the decision “cowardly” and asked ACOG leaders to participate in a scholarly debate.
“We wonder why ACOG is so afraid of our patients and the next generation of OB-GYNs hearing the evidence of abortion’s harm to women’s health,” she said in March. “Furthermore, the scientific evidence clearly supports that abortion ends the life of a human being in the womb.”
Francis, a practicing OB-GYN in Indiana, said the decision to exclude pro-life doctors hurts medical students and residents, scientific debate and, most of all, “the people that OB-GYNs are sworn to serve: our patients.”
Although ACOG continues to be quoted as a reputable, unbiased source in many media outlets, the association has grown increasingly pro-abortion in recent years. For example, the group stopped calling an unborn baby’s heartbeat a “heartbeat” after Texas passed its heartbeat law in 2021.
This troubling trend soon could lead to doctors being forced to help kill unborn babies in abortions – or lose their jobs.
Last year, the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology also caused alarm after it threatened to decertify physicians who provide alleged “misinformation and disinformation” about abortion to patients. The medical board claims abortions are an “essential” part of “reproductive health.” And doctors who disagree could be punished.
Increasingly, mainstream news outlets, Facebook, Twitter and internet giants like YouTube have been labeling information about abortion risks and alternatives as “misinformation” or “false” — not because it actually is but because abortion activists deny evidence that contradicts their mission.
Now, doctors are worried that medical boards may begin doing the same, forcing them out of their jobs because they share studies showing links between infertility, breast cancer, mental health problems and abortion; or because they help a woman reverse the effects of the abortion pill mifepristone in an attempt to save her baby’s life.
Some doctors already have been suspended and subjected to years-long investigations for sharing information about abortion that pro-abortion groups don’t want women to hear.
Another troubling sign, the U.S. House Pro-Choice Caucus published a talking points memo last year that told lawmakers to say “refusal of care/denial of care laws” instead of conscience protections, suggesting they want to end religious freedom protections for pro-life medical workers who object to aborting unborn babies.
