Secular Café: Doctors caught up in the politics of abortion

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Doctors caught up in the politics of abortion Jun 8th 2012, 09:57 The past year has seen a number of US states passing bills that are essentially anti-abortion, although often dressed up a bit to look like something different. Now some doctors are fighting back http://www.salon.com/2012/06/07/doct...ars/singleton/ Quote: "Civil disobedience," is what they called for. Two prominent doctors, Marcia Angell and Michael Greene — both professors at Harvard Medical School; Angell the former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine – were saying doctors should disobey some of the most common abortion restrictions. "They should make it clear that they will not perform procedures, such as ultrasound examinations, unless they are medically indicated and desired by their patients," Angell and Greene wrote in an Op-Ed in USA Today on May 15. "And they should refuse to provide inaccurate information about the consequences of abortion, or to follow any other prepared script in counseling their patients, particularly when it involves treating women like children."... ...Angell and Greene also called for professional organizations like the American Medical Association and "particularly, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to take a public position on behalf of the patients they are pledged to serve, and to support their members in doing so." But ACOG's new president, James T. Breeden, did have a letter published in the New York Times this week, saying, "These laws are not grounded in science or evidence-based medicine," and proclaiming, "Our message to politicians is unequivocal: Get out of our exam rooms." In an interview, Breeden said he thought it was time to take a stand because of the political attacks on contraceptive access. "I felt like we needed to get more involved because this has been an unprecedented change [in the political climate]," he said. "We've been fighting things that we thought were totally solved." (My emboldening)

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