Is Your OB-GYN a Member of this Anti-Choice Group?

[niyad]

Is Your OB-GYN a Member of this Anti-Choice Group?


Anti-choice obstetricians and gynecologists. Sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it? How can a group of people with such a deep medical knowledge of women’s bodies support anti-abortion legislation that endangers women’s health and their lives?



The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) houses this alarming contradiction: It’s an organization of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who strongly oppose abortion and some forms of contraception. Its mission statement asserts that the embryo is a “human being from the moment of fertilization” and that “elective disruption/abortion of human life at any time from fertilization onward constitutes the willful destruction of an innocent human being.”

Underreported and under the radar, there isn’t much to be found online about this organization of 2,500 members. But they’ve been around for more than 40 years and have fought to dismantle pro-choice victories—from the FDA approval of Mifeprex, an abortion-inducing drug, to the over-the-counter availability of Plan B.

To tell you a little about what AAPLOG is and what it stands for, here are some of the falsehoods the organization has been spreading, contrasted with what the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has to say:

Abortion is not safer than childbirth.

Even though the consensus in the medical community is that childbirth carries much more risk than abortion, AAPLOG continues to profess that the claim is under-researched, “a serious distortion of reality” and simply “pro-abortion speculation.” The official statement of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is that “where abortion is legal, it is extremely safe.” The risk of death from childbirth is actually 14 times higher than that associated with abortion, and history shows that when abortion is illegal or restricted, women are much more likely to resort to dangerous methods of ending their pregnancies. Before the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, back-alley abortions resulted in a recorded 5,000 deaths a year in the U.S.

Ultrasound requirements before an abortion are necessary.

Ultrasound mandates are yet another way anti-choice extremists are hoping to cut off abortion access. Laws and pending legislation in several states require women to undergo ultrasound (using an invasive transvaginal probe) before having an abortion, with some states even requiring the woman to listen to a detailed description of the fetal development or look at ultrasound images. These ultrasound mandates are not only invasive, but can create an additional financial hurdle to ending a pregnancy. ACOG has been vocal against ultrasound mandates, calling them unnecessary laws that are “demeaning and disrespectful” to women and “insulting to the nurses and doctors who care for them.” The organization stresses that such medical care should remain between a medical expert and the patient, referring to ultrasound mandates as a “dangerous precedent.”

. . . . .

http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/05/11/is-your-obgyn-a-member-of-this-anti-choice-group/

[AnnieBW]

1. When I Switched OB/GYNs, That Was the First Question I Asked

Especially because my new (at that time) doctor was male. He's definitely pro-choice, which is why I continue to go to him.

[beam me up scottie]

2. They lie about emergency contraception...

Emergency contraception, also known as Plan B, should not be available over-the-counter.

In 2013, when the FDA approved emergency contraception (Plan B) for OTC availability, it was a victory for women’s health that ACOG applauded. Yet the president of AAPLOG wrote a letter urging the FDA to reconsider the decision. Going against scientific facts, AAPLOG’s position is that increased access to emergency contraception does not lower abortion rates or unintended pregnancies. The letter advised the FDA to at least put labeling on emergency contraception that warns women that Plan B is an abortifacient, even though the medical community has disproven that myth.

And the "link" between abortion and breast cancer:

Breast cancer and abortion could be linked and further studies are required.

Being an association of medical professionals, it is astounding how AAPLOG continually ignores vetted medical evidence that shows no link between abortion and the subsequent development of breast cancer. It accuses ACOG of only using studies that “agree with their politically correct opinions” and taking “liberties with their interpretation of the scientific literature.” It calls for additional studies and a reevaluation of past studies. In a committee statement, ACOG said that early studies proclaiming a breast cancer/abortion link were flawed and that larger, more recent studies show no link. What’s more, the National Cancer Institute agrees with them. But due to lobbying efforts by groups like AAPLOG, more than 15 states are considering laws that would require doctors to give this inaccurate information to women seeking abortions.

These doctors have an agenda, and it's not women's health.

[freshwest]

3. In my neighborhood, the morning after pills were not only OTC, but on the counter by the register.

Now they are put out of sight and have to be asked, as the RWNJs are gaining sway in my *cough* blue state now.

Our governor had to intervene to stop a Catholic take over of a hospital in a rural area, which would have essentially made it impossible for women to get the procedures they needed. We also have an increase of these 'Christian Clinics' springing up. I'm pretty sure they won't tell women the facts.

There are clear signs that a LOT of money is being poured into community churches to make these regressive changes.

But it's just social issues and not about economics, or so I'm told. Unless one is pregnant or trying to keep from being pregnant and then it is the economic issue of one's entire life.

There has been a full court press through the back door by attacks on public education because they spread 'Teh Gay' and 'teach Communism and Islam' and are alleged to be 'Anti-Christian.'

And the schools are all wrong, or so one is told by a willing media. It all gets back to ALEC, Koch money, the Birchers and all their tools who say they aren't RW.

But the end result is very much the same. For women, anyway.

[beam me up scottie]

5. A few years ago I was in desperate need of the map and had to scramble to find it.

I couldn't even get it at the hospital and they wouldn't refer me to a doctor or pharmacy. I was in a panic, after hours of phone calls, internet searches and emails I was given the number of a drugstore that carried it and the young pharmacist had to come in just for me (it was on a Sunday). I was so grateful he must have thought I was mad.

I posted this in another thread:

The RCC has been busy the last few decades, first with with finding a way to restrict abortion until they can get an amendment passed to undo Roe v Wade:

The Personhood Movement: Internal Battles Go Public: Part 2

In 1975, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops had developed a plan to turn every diocese into an anti-choice political machine and to use its existing infrastructure to set up an office in every congressional district. The bishops’ plan included a four-pronged legislative strategy, which continues to guide the anti-choice movement today:

(a) Passage of a constitutional amendment providing protection for the unborn child to the maximum degree possible.

(b) Passage of federal and state laws and adoption of administrative policies that will restrict the practice of abortion as much as possible.

(c) Continual research into and refinement and precise interpretation of Roe and Doe and subsequent court decisions.

(d) Support for legislation that provides alternatives to abortion.


In other words: fight for an amendment to undo Roe, but at the same time work through the courts and legislatures to make it harder for women to access legal abortion. While Roe would remain the law of the land, women would not be able to actually exercise their rights.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/personhood-movement-internal-battles-go-public-part-2-0

And they were also behind the Hobby Lobby decision:

How the Catholic Church masterminded the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby debacle

The Catholic bishops now sought a broad-based conscience clause that would allow any employer or insurer to refuse to cover contraceptives for any religious or moral objection. This represented a major escalation in the grounds for claiming conscience protections. Traditionally so-called conscience clauses, like the 1973 Church Amendment, protected individuals or health care entities like hospitals only from being compelled to directly perform abortions or sterilizations in violation of their moral or religious beliefs. In 1997, the federal government expanded conscience protections to the payers of abortion-related services when it allowed Medicaid and Medicare managed-care plans to refuse to pay providers for abortion counseling or referral services. Now the bishops were attempting to extend conscience protection to any payer who had a “moral” objection to contraception. Such a measure would make contraceptive coverage mandates useless, because any employer or insurer could opt out. And it would once again leave women’s reproductive health care at the mercy of individual employers and insurers and stigmatize contraceptives, like abortion, as a segregated health service that could be carved out of the continuum of women’s health needs.

The bishops failed to get a broader conscience clause in the bill mandating coverage of contraceptives for federal employees, but they did manage to get an exemption for the five religiously affiliated plans in the system. Having set the precedent that religious providers would be treated differently concerning the provision of reproductive health care, even in the matter of noncontroversial services such as contraception, the bishops launched a major new effort to create broad conscience exemptions.

...

There was more at stake that just the bishops’ authority over services provided by Catholic institutions. Domestic and international social service agencies affiliated with the church, like Catholic Charities USA and Catholic Relief Services, receive hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts each year to provide social services to the poor, run adoption agencies, and manage international development projects. Catholic Charities affiliates received nearly $3 billion in government funding in 2010, accounting for more than 60 percent of their revenue. Religiously affiliated hospitals in the United States, of which 70 percent are Catholic, receive some $40 billion in government funding each year through Medicare and Medicaid and other government programs.

http://www.salon.com/2014/09/14/how_the_catholic_church_masterminded_the_supreme_courts_hobby_lobby_debacle/

They don't care about women's health, they care about control, and it always comes back to their need to punish dirty sluts for their sins.

[LeftyMom]

4. I go to Planned Parenthood for my routine gyno stuff, and they've been consistently excellent.

I even did my prenatal through them and the first year or so of my kid's well baby visits with their family practice doctor, who is lovely.

I know that's not an option everywhere, and it hasn't always been for me (for a while I had Kaiser and had to use their doctors exclusively, because the way their plan works is weird) but when it's an option I wholeheartedly recommend it.

[niyad]

6. . . .

[Initech]

7. Wouldn't that be a violation of the hypocratic oath that all doctors take?

[niyad]

8. well, not the hypocritical oath some health care "professionals" seem to take.

[countryjake]

9. kickety

[PATXgirl]

10. Took a look at Texas to see if mine was listed. She was not but Ron Paul from Lake Jackson is.

[REP]

11. Not just no but HELL NO

My OB GYN is a young woman (relative to my own age) and is very dedicated to every aspect of women's reproductive health.

My first OB GYN was in practice when abortion was illegal. He was very, very much pro-choice and hated pro-liars.