New laws force doctors to lie to patients about abortion

[Novara]

New laws force doctors to lie to patients about abortion


While the American public focused on the controversial “religious freedom” bill passed in Indiana last month, two other states also made far-reaching and dangerous political moves: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson each signed legislation forcing doctors to tell women seeking medication-induced abortions that the process can be reversed once it has begun.

As doctors, we do not recommend a treatment until it’s been proven safe and effective. This legislature-supported treatment has not met these standards, so to be governmentally mandated to recommend it is deeply disturbing. Consequently, our organizations, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Physicians for Reproductive Health, are speaking out against this reckless and dangerous intrusion into the practice of medicine.

Simply put, evidence and science must guide the care that patients receive in any area of medicine. When political agendas get in the way of that, patients suffer.

<snip>

Legislatures and governors would never presume to tell an oncologist which cancer chemotherapy to prescribe. They would never presume to tell a breast surgeon to do a lumpectomy rather than a mastectomy. They would never presume to tell an endocrinologist how to treat diabetes most effectively. They would never – in any other area of medicine – step into the exam room with a physician and a patient and force the physician to recommend an untested treatment.

And yet, this is what we see time and again when it comes to the physicians who provide women with the medical treatment needed to end a pregnancy. These politicians presume to know better. But they do not and never will.
So this is the current state of affairs: Legislatures are mandating that doctors in one area of medicine lie to their patients. We would not stand for this in any other area of medicine and we shouldn’t stand for it when it comes to abortion care.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/new-laws-force-doctors-lie-patients-about-abortion

[niyad]

1. but, we are told, there is NO war on women!

[Novara]

2. Isn't this compelled speech?

Doesn't freedom of speech also mean that the government can't tell someone what to say? How can the government force doctors to say this shit?