The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) criticized the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) for always intervening to support pro-choice laws and ignoring the Hippocratic Oath, in an amicus brief in the Gee Supreme Court case. AAPLOG asserts that ACOG’s opinion has been given too much weight in court filings and that they do not speak for most OB/GYNs, since they have never supported even common-sense health and safety standards concerning abortion.
The Supreme Court case, which will be heard the first week of March, concerns whether abortionists can be required to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals as a condition of committing abortions; this is the same standard that other medical professionals are held to in the state.
AAPLOG noted, “The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has always presented itself to the Court as a source of objective medical knowledge. However, when it comes to abortion, the College today is primarily a pro-abortion political advocacy organization. Dating back to Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, ACOG has filed dozens of briefs in abortion cases but has never in any instance filed or joined a brief in support of any limitation whatsoever on elective abortion, even when ample scientific evidence and the medical standard of care for other comparable procedures would support that limitation.”
Furthermore, they point out, “Physicians who practice in accordance with the Hippocratic Oath do not perform either elective abortions or euthanasia. When circumstances arise in which the continued union of the mother and her baby pose a genuine, imminent threat to the mother’s life, then all OB-GYNs are trained to separate the mother and the baby…Only rarely is this emergency separation necessary before the baby can survive outside of the womb.” Additionally, this is not considered an abortion, because all efforts are made to save both the mother and child.
The group continues to point out that ACOG once was a medical advocacy group, advocating for standards for doctors and for better medical care, but has now become an advocacy group for abortion, something AAPLOG argues is the opposite of healthcare.
At the core of its amicus brief is an interesting question; at what point are trade groups and associations, like ACOG, providing non-biased information that can help judges and justices make decisions and at what point is their own bias and political agenda informing their analysis of laws?
You can read more of the amicus briefs here.
