March 25, 2013 Dear ProLife Colleague, The Feb 2013 AAPLOG CME speakers are available by YouTube on our website. Go to https://www.aaplog.org/aaplog-annual-educational-meeting/ Click on the “go arrow” on the picture of your selected speaker. To make the picture larger, click on “YouTube” in the lower right corner of the picture frame, and when you are in YouTube, to make the picture full screen, click on “full screen” in the lower right corner of that frame. Also included are video presentations by several of the Research and Strategy speakers, from the Friday sessions. Below are found the final narrative summaries of our 2 days of meetings. These include the research and strategy sessions that were held on Friday, Feb 22. These summaries are also available on our website. AAPLOG 2013: Research and Strategy Meeting The Matthew Bulfin Educational Symposium was preceded by the annual research and strategy meeting on February 22nd. New literature on preterm birth by Byron Calhoun, who reminded us that there are now 137 papers documenting a statistically significant risk for preterm birth after abortion. In a new paper by Klemetti in 2012 with impeccable data from Finland, we find that the most significant increase in risk is in very preterm birth (< 28 weeks) with 69% increased risk after >/=2 and 178% increased risk after >/=3 abortions. Joel Brind reviewed new research on the abortion breast cancer link from China, which is on the brink of a burgeoning breast cancer epidemic. Because abortion is so prevalent in China, interpretation of epidemiologic data is difficult. Women who have NOT had an abortion are atypical and higher risk in other ways, which makes comparison with more typical women with an abortion history more problematic. In a presentation on psychological effects of abortion, new research, especially the effects of coercion, was discussed by Priscilla Coleman. Michael New, in a social science research update, reinforced that the wording of surveys can greatly affect the outcome of calculating “pro-choice” and “pro-life” percentages. A Rasmussen poll in November, 2012 appeared to contradict the historic shift of the majority of the American public from pro-choice to pro-life in a May, 2012 Gallup poll. New stated that this was just a matter of semantics, and a true shift toward the pro-life position is occurring, especially in those under 30. Donna Harrison discussed the types of abortion studies, and the difficulty of securing accurate statistics. Of note is that some studies on abortion in countries where abortion is illegal are promoted and funded by pro-abortion groups in the U.S. such as Guttmacher and IPAS, and produce distorted, biased and unreliable conclusions. The research symposium was privileged to have two speakers from the MELISA Institute (Molecular Epidemiology for Life Sciences Accountability, www.melisainstitute.com) in Chile, Elard Koch and Paula Aracena. After Dr. Donna Harrison discussed MELISA’s new article in the International Journal of Women’s Health (http://www.dovepress.com/articles.php?article_id=11688) re-evaluating abortion related mortality in Mexico, Dr. Koch discussed the biological plausibility of detecting eight biological markers for pregnancy immediately after fertilization as did Dr. Aracena, who reviewed state-of-the-art proteomic approaches to identify novel biomarkers. Dr. Koch also gave an update of new research on potential embryonic and fetal interventions to reach “phenotype reprogramming” in Down syndrome babies. The strategy portion of the meeting included Denise Burke, William Saunders, and Charmaine Yoest of AUL, and Steve Aden of ADF, reviewing judicial decisions. Anna Franzonello of AUL discussed life-related legislation; Matt Bowman of ADF reviewed conscience rights in light of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Wendy Wright, Rebecca Oas and Marie Smith updated us on the monumental efforts taking place by numerous organizations to impose abortion on developing countries, diverting resources from genuine medical needs. Mark Rienzi gave a helpful presentation for physicians preparing for depositions. The case of a pregnant woman in Ireland who died of E. Coli sepsis was reviewed in detail by Eoghan de Faiote, who stated that reports that the woman or her husband had requested an abortion were inaccurate. Additionally, there is no evidence to date that pregnancy termination would have saved her. A virulent strain of E Coli in Ireland was the cause of this and other deaths, and there is as yet no conclusion as to the source of the bacteria. Dennis Sullivan and Gifford Grobien gave illuminating ethical analyses of this case and of difficult maternal/fetal situations. Following the strategy meeting, in a special seminar Germain Grisez engaged us in a compelling discussion of moral ways of acting in life-threatening medical conflicts, with regard to traditional Thomistic and natural law analysis.
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