AAPLOG Colorado

standing for women and babies in Colorado

Established 2024

AAPLOG Colorado: The First AAPLOG State Chapter

AAPLOG CO is the first in the nation state chapter of the American Association of Pro-Life OB/GYNS. Our foundation is based on the fact that all human beings deserve optimal healthcare at every stage of their life, starting at fertilization.

Our mission is to equip pro-life medical professionals in our state with the tools they need to provide evidence-based/scientifically sound information:

To promote and defend life-affirming care for both the pregnant mother and her unborn child;
To be drivers in the development of strategies and healthcare legislation that improves safe/effective obstetric and perinatal care, thereby enhancing overall outcomes for pregnant women and their unborn child.
To make abortion unthinkable.

Recent Activity

While we are saddened by the passage of Amendment 79, and the resultant increased harms to women seeking abortion in our state, the increased deaths to preborn babies, and the multitude of harms to families and our society, we are determined in the importance of our mission as medical professionals to provide life-affirming Hippocratic medicine that women desire and deserve, to be a supportive community around each other in this worthy endeavor, to expand education of the public about the harms of abortion and the dignity and value of the preborn baby, to impact policy to support families, and to mentor and support the next generation of healthcare professionals. This is only the beginning.

Thank you, all who worked so diligently to educate those in your circles of influence, who held events, spoke publicly, wrote opinion pieces and letters, worked through your churches and organizations, and who supported the united mission of Right to Know Colorado in so many ways.

We are convinced that if Coloradans truly knew and understood the truth about abortion, they would not have voted for this harmful amendment.

Now, more than ever, medical professionals must come together to do this urgent and critical work. Because of the certain harms of the passage of the Amendment, more women will need compassionate, life-affirming care, and more women will seek medical professionals who offer true care – not just abortion.

A powerful good that has emerged from our efforts has been the galvanized unity and coordinated efforts of Prolife Colorado’s over 50 prolife organizations, and the emergence of the prolife medical community through AAPLOG CO. We are well-positioned as we move forward for women, preborn babies, and families.

With great expectation we look forward to the impact we will have, as we move into the gap created by the movement of organized medicine from evidence-based exceptional maternity and reproductive care to unrestricted, unregulated abortion access as its penultimate goal.

Former Abortionists Speak Out About Womens’ Healthcare, on Sept. 24,2024 in Washington, D.C.

Hosted by AAPLOG Action and AAPLOG CO

Amendment 79...

is Bad for Women
and Bad for Colorado

All Colorado medical professionals of every specialty who agree, please sign. Your name will be publicly listed

Why Your State Needs an AAPLOG State Chapter

October 2024

Initially, Wendy, Tom and I sought to develop a state chapter to increase our validity under the umbrella of AAPLOG, the preeminent medical voice defending both of our patients. We had been thwarted continuously at the Colorado legislature, and the lack of a supporting medical organization appeared to limit our effectiveness. We also observed many medical professionals testifying independently, again limiting impact without coordination and cooperation to intensify our persuasiveness.

The first year of the Colorado Chapter of AAPLOG has proven fruitful and beneficial for Colorado’s Prolife Medical Professionals, the state of Colorado, AAPLOG, and the nation. We will focus on the benefits within Colorado….

AAPLOG Colorado has four primary goals:

Develop community for prolife medical professionals
Champion and encourage the next generation of prolife medical professionals and leaders
Equip and provide medical professionals to provide evidence-based defense of both of our patients, mother and baby, as we educate public and media
Be a resource for policy makers and create/ support life-affirming policies espousing pregnancy and childbearing

Benefits for the Colorado Prolife Medical Professionals

Community – We welcome medical professionals of all professions and all specialties. While we strongly and regularly encourage AAPLOG membership, it is not required. Many have become members over time. Colorado membership increased 50% in the first year of AAPLOG CO
Engagement – We have had semi-weekly Zoom meetings as we develop, and to prepare members to educate the public about the reckless and extreme Amendment 79. This collaborative effort has also developed community
Events – Many members have prepared and hosted events to educate the public in their communities. This has inspired others to do the same, multiplying our effectiveness
Collaboration and Prolife Medical Resource for legislative and ballot initiative (Amendment 79) with Prolife Colorado and the issue committee Right to Know CO. AAPLOG CO leads the medical arm, and its leadership is on the Board of Prolife CO, participating in all strategic planning and implementation. The coordinated medical voice has been instrumental in developing polling, developing messaging, educating the public, influencing the media narrative about Amendment 79, and correcting misinformation in the media. This has included developing a strategic Op Ed and Letter to the Editor campaign throughout Colorado, with many members participating. Regardless of whether published, the editors are receiving critical evidence-based information that should be persuasive and transformative. We have also provided coordinated comments and testimony for the Voter’s Guide (The Blue Book). A Declaration regarding the harms of Amendment 79 is currently being prepared to solicit signatures of medical professionals and to raise public/media awareness.
Cross-pollination and multiplication of prolife efforts – Collaboration with and medical resource for Prolife non-profit organizations, including pregnancy resource centers. churches, Focus on the Family, Colson Center, Save the Storks, Students for Life.
Developing recognition as the principle source for contact for evidence-based information about life-affirming care and about abortion in Colorado
Creativity – networking and collaboration with members, between leadership, and with other prolife organizations has birthed into many innovative projects with significant efficacy.
Next Generation medical professionals and leaders – members of AAPLOG CO have spoken with high school, college and medical students, increasing membership, and encouraging many who thought their conscience would not align with entering medicine in general, or Ob-Gyn related fields. Some students have attended MBEC, which promotes community, mentorship, and leadership development
Having the authority and support of the preeminent prolife medical organization, AAPLOG
Collaboration with physicians of other states with ballot initiatives (“Former Abortionists Speak Out about Womens’ Healthcare” event on 9/24/24). Developing a network with organizations and physicians in other states to participate in their projects, share ideas, learn what is effective and not, and for encouragement and support.

Benefits for Colorado

Turning Colorado from a “leader in abortion” to our destiny: a leader in life.
Public: education and visibility of Hippocratic Medicine, life-affirming, exemplary care for both the mother and the baby.
An area of opportunity: Prolife medical professionals identifying and participation in resolving local and state obstetric needs, promoting excellent care for both our patients, including participating in solutions to the maternity care/ maternity desert crisis in Colorado – a gap created by the focus of other professional medical organizations’ primary and unrelenting advocacy for unrestricted, unregulated abortion, rather than optimal access and equality of access to essential maternity care and delivery.
Pregnancy Resource Centers – we are the medical organization many now notify of medical staffing needs, and to support, promote and defend their work
Collaboration and medical resource for other prolife organizations
Development of media relationships to share evidence-based information about the developing baby and abortion, and to educate about prolife issues.
Legislation – create and defend prolife legislation that helps Coloradans thrive, defend from harmful pro-abortion legislation, providing testimony, op eds, letters to the editor, and be a medical resource to policy-makers
Potential prolife participation on the state medical, nursing and pharmacy boards, state medical society, and other committees to promote evidence-based, Hippocratic practice
Engagement and development of next generation prolife medical professionals and leaders
Restore TRUST in medicine
Hold biased medical publications responsible and promote a return to unbiased scientific inquiry
Expose and correct harmful disinformation in the media
Developing outreach to abortion workers and abortionists, promoting their exit, and healing, and facilitating the closure of abortion facilities in Colorado

This is a tiny taste of the powerful reverberations of expanding AAPLOG’s vision and mission, resources and authority into your state.

Please reach out to us with comments, ideas, and questions: colorado@aaplog.org

The Executive Team,

Wendy Smith, ACNP-retired
Tom Perille, MD
Catherine Wheeler, MD

First in the nation: History of AAPLOG CO

September 2024

July 2024 marks one year since we proposed making Colorado the first-in-the-nation state chapter of the American Association of Pro-life OB/GYNs (AAPLOG). Though the chapter officially launched following the March for Life in Denver, in April 2024, a lot work took place prior to AAPLOG CO becoming a reality.

Background

Colorado has a long history of pro-abortion activism that has led to our current extreme abortion laws, which have made Colorado an abortion “refuge” state. Going back as far as 1967, Colorado passed a law allowing for abortion in the setting of rape, fetal abnormality, incest or to protect the mother’s life. Between 1975-1998 all anti-abortion laws failed. Of note, in 1984 Colorado Voters approved a constitutional amendment to prevent the use of public funds for abortions. Even under Republican Governor Bill Owens, 4 attempts to ban abortion failed. In 2008 and again in 2010 a “personhood” ballot initiative launched by the Colorado Right to Life failed. The Reproductive Health Equity Act which passed in 2023 established a right to unrestricted abortion in Colorado law, and removed all rights from the preborn baby. Measures passed in 2023 opened the door for women and girls to travel across state lines for unfettered access to abortion. Governor Polis has signed laws that shield abortion providers, people who seek abortion or gender-affirming care, and made it unprofessional conduct to prescribe progesterone as abortion pill reversal. This has not happened in a vacuum or overnight….

One year ago, it became clear that efforts were underway to launch a petition to codify Colorado’s progressive abortion laws into the state constitution and to move toward taxpayer funding. In July 2023, three friends, Catherine Wheeler, MD, OB/GYN, Tom Perille, MD and President of Colorado Pro-life Democrats, and Wendy Smith, ACNP-retired, met to brainstorm over efforts to block this initiative. One of the barriers had been a fractioned approach, not only among pro-life organizations, (who are now uniting their efforts), but there was a critical need build a stronger coalition of pro-life medical providers within Colorado. We needed be able to identify these providers and to build an army of medical professionals who could speak to the science and facts surrounding life, who would testify against pro-abortion laws, educate their peers and the public within their sphere of influence, and perhaps most importantly, those who would be willing to write Letters to the Editors, opinion pieces, and articles about life and our egregious abortion laws. Our hope was that AAPLOG CO’s efforts would be instrumental in educating about Initiative 89 (to put unrestricted abortion in the state constitution and removing the ban on tax-payor funding) and exemplify a model for healthcare professionals in other states in countering the abortion activists.

We wrote a proposal to AAPLOG to see if they would be willing to establish a state chapter with us. Dr. Christina Francis joined us for three days in September 2024 to meet with groups of interested medical professionals (MDs, Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, Medical Students, Pharmacists and nurses) in three different geographic areas: Denver, Grand Junction, and Colorado Springs. Following her visit the board of AAPLOG agreed to make Colorado their first chapter.

One year later

Over the past year a lot of work has been done and a lot remains to be done. Since AAPLOG CO officially launched in April, members have participated in AAPLOG media/expert witness training, networked with other pro-life organizations, such as the Christian Medical & Dental Association and Catholic Medical Association, and AAPLOG CO represents the medical community as part of Pro-life Colorado, which is a coalition of over 50 pro-life organizations joining resources and expertise in order to prevent the abortion laws of Colorado from being enshrined into the state constitution. More and more professionals are hearing about AAPLOG CO and we now have an email list of over 400 medical professionals and medical students from across Colorado. Several of our members have hosted and participated in public educational programs, such as: Let’s Talk About Life in Monument CO and The Great Debate, a mock abortion debate in Denver, with more programs planned in August and September. Drs. Wheeler and Perille participated in weekly podcasts with Life Decisions through the Spring. Dr. Wheeler was also interviewed for the AAPLOG podcast. Members of our chapter have published Letters to the Editors in local media outlets such as the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Denver Gazette (paper and digital), Colorado Politics, the Colorado Sun and others. Dr. Wheeler represents our chapter on the Board of AAPLOG and participates in the medical advisory board for Save the Storks. We host educational Zoom meetings for members every other Monday evening, presenting topics on writing, how to host an educational program, neonatology and care of premature babies, psychological issues surrounding abortion, building relationships with editors and legislators, etc.

It has been a very busy, very productive year and as a result AAPLOG CO has made its presence known. We are becoming a resource for the pro-life community as well as a force in challenging the pro-choice advocate narrative.

Short Term Goals

Long Term Goals

Develop a robust, meaningful prolife medical community in Colorado, with 5 goals:

Equip medical professionals with the scientific evidence and rationale to defend life and educate on the harms of abortion
Provide prolife medical professionals with community and support
Mentor and support the students in medical professions
Collaborate with legislators as medical experts to develop and promote life-affirming legislation
Partner with public and private entities to serve women facing unplanned and challenging pregnancies

We will be communicating regularly via:

Recent Podcasts

Recently podcasts episodes featuring the AAPLOG CO executive team:

Recent Articles

Recently printed pieces from the AAPLOG CO executive team:

immediate action steps

Action plans are never stagnant. Our main focus for 2024 is to defeat Initiative 79, the “Right to Abortion”. Therefore, we will update our call to action going forward after November to continue our momentum into the future.

Join with us to build a network/community of life-affirming medical professionals.
Intensify public education about the science surrounding fetal growth and development, the value and dignity of every human life, and to build a consensus in opposition to Initiative 79, the “Right to Abortion” amendment.
Use every media platform available to inform the public and raise awareness about this initiative and to counter any false or misleading information against life-affirming care.
Represent pro-life healthcare professionals in the Pro-Life Colorado Coalition, strengthening collaborative efforts in opposition to Initiative 79.
Engage in efforts statewide to assist healthcare professionals who practice life affirming medicine in navigating Colorado’s medical and legal environment; efforts to remove barriers and enhance access to life affirming care (e.g. APR).
Mentor the next generation of life-affirming medical professionals.
Encourage voter registration.

Catherine J. Wheeler, MD, is an Ob/Gyn physician who practiced in Salt Lake City, Utah for 24 years...

Tom Perille MD is a retired Hospitalist/Internist who practiced in Denver for over 35 years. He worked in peer...

Wendy J. Smith is a retired Acute Care Nurse Practitioner. She completed her Nursing Diploma at St. Lukes in ...

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