AAPLOG NEWS RELEASE For Release: September 14, 2005 STATEMENT OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PRO-LIFE OBSTETRICIANS AND GYNECOLOGISTS on ACOG letter Urging U.S. Senators to Violate the Rights of Conscience of Physicians In a letter to United States Senators dated August 30, 2005, Dr. Michael Mennuti, writing as President of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), has requested the United States Congress to “require doctors with moral objections to refer for abortions.” Urging the Senators to alter the current Abortion Non-Discrimination Act, Mennuti states, “Doctors who morally object to abortion should be required to refer patients to other physicians [for an abortion].” Dr. Mennuti claims to represent the entire ACOG membership and partners, yet the leadership of ACOG has never raised this particular controversial issue with its membership. The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), the largest single Special Interest Group within ACOG, finds this request abhorrent. Those who morally object to abortion usually do so because they understand abortion as the taking of innocent life. To require a physician who believes this to refer someone for an abortion would force him or her to be complicit in that act. A government forcing physicians who morally object to abortion to participate in it through referral would be a draconian measure more consonant with the actions of a repressive regime then with the tenets of a free society. That ACOG would call for such a drastic measure can only be seen as an act of desperation from an old guard of abortion activism increasingly surrounded by a rising culture of life. We urge the United State Congress to disregard all such requests and to instead take action protecting the rights of conscience of all those who participate in medical care. The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists represents over 2000 Obstetricians and Gynecologists and partners in women’s health as a Special Interest Group of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. info@aaplog.org 616-546-2639
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