Committee Opinion 4: Should Elective Abortions be Performed by Practitioners who are Not Physicians?

There has been recent discussion about allowing non-physician healthcare providers to perform abortions. The motivation behind this recommendation is obvious. Most obstetrician/gynecologists do not want to perform abortions, because most physicians enter the medical profession to heal, and not to kill human beings. The fetal human being is a genetically distinct living member of the human species. In almost all occasions, the termination of this immature human life is performed for social, not medical reasons.  Since most physicians are not willing to end a fetal life for elective reasons, the abortion industry is seeking to reverse the decline in physician abortion providers by adding alternative practitioners, for example seeking to allow first and second trimester abortions by Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) and Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs), independent of physician participation.