Is Your OB-GYN a Member of this Anti-Choice Group?
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.”
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http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/05/11/is-your-obgyn-a-member-of-this-anti-choice-group/
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