Pro-Life OB/GYNs Ask How Can Abortion Be ‘Women’s Health Care’ When 93 Percent of Practicing OB/GYNs ‘Do Not Perform Them’

Susan Berry, PhD

A new campaign by a national organization of pro-life OB/GYNs is challenging the narratives of the abortion industry and its allies in the medical establishment, particularly its top assertion that abortion is women’s health care.

“We know that 93% of practicing OB/GYNs do not perform abortion – and these are women’s healthcare specialists,” Dr. Christina Francis, CEO-elect of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) told The Star News Network.

“If it was an essential part of women’s health care, they would all be doing it, but they don’t because they know that it ends the life of one of their patients, and they also know that it carries harms for women,” she said.

In an analysis titled “Myth vs. Fact: Correcting Misinformation on Maternal Medical Care,” AAPLOG members counter the message of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), an establishment organization that has made itself subservient to the abortion industry.

“As obstetrician–gynecologists, we support the health, safety, and well-being of our patients by providing comprehensive medical care,” ACOG states in its “Abortion Access Fact Sheet.”

“This means working to ensure that all patients can access the full spectrum of maternal, sexual, and reproductive health care options, including abortion,” the organization says.

“We really need to be looking for better solutions to improve women’s health care – but not abortion,” AAPLOG’s Francis countered, however, explaining:

Abortion has been a band aid that we have placed on, you know, social situations that are facing women, medical situations that are facing women. It doesn’t fix anything. And I think you know, the benefit of states now being allowed to restrict abortion is that maybe this will incentivize people to actually take a look at the root causes for things like maternal mortality, and try to fix those things as opposed to just throwing abortion at it.

The pro-life doctors characterize ACOG’s positions as “far more extreme than the vast majority of OB/GYNs in the country.”

The establishment organization has gone so far as to “actively oppose doctors who do not agree with the group’s radical positions,” and ACOG “refuses to represent the diversity of professional views in the OB/GYN community as a whole,” AAPLOG asserts, noting further ACOG’s attempts to suppress information that does not support the abortion industry:

  • ACOG has sidelined science for pro-abortion advocacy, treating abortion differently than actual medical care and ignoring the wealth of evidence showing significant harms to women from abortion, such as adverse mental health outcomes and an increased risk of preterm birth in future pregnancies.
  • ACOG rarely surveys their members about their position and opinions on abortion.
  • ACOG refuses to support ultrasounds prior to abortions – which are critical for providing informed consent to a patient.
  • ACOG opposes restrictions on partial-birth abortions – their policies allow abortions to be performed at any time before delivery and by any method.

Francis said, in the current post-Roe era, ACOG has ramped up its abortion myths by repeating the abortion industry’s mantra that elective abortion is somehow “lifesaving medical care”:

There has been so much intentional fear-mongering and spreading false information not only by the media, but also, unfortunately, from the mainstream medical organizations who really should know better than just say some of the things that they’re saying. And, you know, not only does this represent false information coming from physicians, but it also, I think, has a harmful impact on the health of our patients because many patients are going to be concerned that they can’t access actual health care services that they need, when nothing could be further from the truth.

Francis said among the top falsehoods AAPLOG is challenging is that women will not be able to obtain treatment for ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages in states that have outlawed abortion.

“Which, of course, is not true,” she told The Star News Network. “All you have to do is look at the state laws and look at the language in the state laws that are on the books to see that they don’t outlaw those kinds of treatments.”

“But, also, look to the practices of those of us who have practiced medicine our entire careers, or practices of hospitals that did not allow abortion, such as Catholic hospital systems, where we’ve always been able to treat those conditions,” Francis continued:

And what about when a woman’s life is in danger because of a pregnancy complication? While that may be termed by some an “abortion,” one, it’s allowed by state laws that are very clear about ending a pregnancy early, prematurely separating mom and baby in situations where the mom’s life is in danger, but also, again, looking to our everyday practice, you know, as an OB hospitalist, I am managing high risk OB patients, I am taking care of those rare situations where mom’s life is in danger because of a pregnancy complication. And in those circumstances, I, as well as every other competent physician knows, that’s not the same as an elective abortion.

Francis said she and other trained OB/GYN’s can still intervene in these emergencies, noting that “well-trained OBs know how to identify signs that a woman is becoming sick before she becomes critically ill so that we can intervene before.”

“That’s the other piece of misinformation that we’re hearing,” Francis added, “that women have to be going to the ICU before you can intervene – which is not true at all.”

“That’s medical malpractice, if physicians are waiting until that point to try to intervene,” she asserted.

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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Christina Francis” by American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. 

 

 

 

          

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