Thousands of U.S. Doctors Ask Ob/Gyn College to Stop Forcing Physicians to Refer for Abortion

[Guest guest]

Passing this on from another listserv: (as an FYI..ACOG is the

group that made the recommendation last Feb that every pregnant woman receive prenatal

screening tests for Down syndrome)

From:

Choose_Life_4_Us_2

LifeSiteNews.com

Wednesday December 12, 2007

Thousands of U.S. Doctors Ask Ob/Gyn College to Stop Forcing

Physicians to Refer for Abortion

WASHINGTON, DC, December 12, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The United

States' largest faith-based association of physicians, the 15,000-

member Christian Medical Association (http://www.cmda.org),

joined

other leading national organizations yesterday in challenging The

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) to stop

its attack on the conscience rights of pro-life physicians.

A letter, drafted by the CMA and signed by other national

organizations, blasted ACOG's Committee on Ethics position

statement, " The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive

Medicine. " CMA's letter noted that the statement " suggests a profound

misunderstanding of the nature and exercise of conscience, an

underlying bias against persons of faith and an apparent attempt to

disenfranchise physicians who oppose ACOG's political activism on

abortion. "

CMA CEO s, MD said, " ACOG is not only out of touch with

conscience-driven physicians, but also with our long-standing

American tradition to protect the rights of citizens to not

participate in conscience-violating actions-especially when those

actions would take a human life. That American tradition rests on

constitutional principles of religious freedom and speech. "

ACOG's position paper targets pro-life physicians, insisting that

abortion-objecting physicians refer patients to get abortions and

declaring that physicians who will not participate in conscience-

violating procedures and prescriptions must actually move close to

doctors who will.

Dr. s added, " Many physicians had been realizing that because

of their aggressive abortion lobbying, ACOG officials do not

represent the values of most physicians and mainstream medicine. This

statement goes a step beyond not representing our life-affirming

values to actually advocating policies to prevent us from exercising

those values. ACOG's attitude seems to be, 'If you don't toe the ACOG

line on abortion, the 'morning-after pill,' and the application of

reproductive technology, then you shouldn't be practicing obstetrics--

and if you do, we're going to do everything in our power to force you

to accommodate our abortion agenda. "

CMA Executive Vice President Gene Rudd, MD, an obstetrician and

gynecologist, noted, " I have withdrawn my ACOG membership of over 25

years. My conscience can no longer support their lack of conscience.

ACOG's strategy seeks to marginalize dissenting opinions. I as an

obstetrician have a moral obligation not only to act in my patient's

best interest, but also in the best interest of the developing baby,

and of society as a whole. "

See the CMA letter:

http://www.cmda.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Right_of_Conscie...

See the ACOG position statement:

http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/ethics/co385.pdf