This page contains the following updated materials:

1)  Doctors are protected by federal law from having to refer for abortion [see the law below].  2)  ACOG is asking the US Congress to change the law, in order to mandate abortion referral. 
3) The AAPLOG  press release is to be found following the 1996 law... 

Judge Refuses Restraining Order against Illinois Rule Forcing Pharmacies to Dispense EC/MAP (9/05)

1) THE LAW: The Medical Training NonDiscrimination Act of 1996 (Existing Federal law) says: 
"The federal government and any state that receives federal financial assistance may not subject any health care entity to discrimination on the basis that the entity refuses to undergo training in the performance of induced abortions, to provide such training, to
perform such abortions, or to provide referrals for such abortions."

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2) THE ACOG POSITION (Sent to US Senators) urging senate support for a new bill currently under consideration, which would change the existing law:

Require Doctors with Moral Objections to Refer for Abortions

The Senate bill would also alter the current Abortion Non-Discrimination Act language so that it would only apply to the counseling and provision of abortion services, and not referrals.
Doctors who morally object to abortion should be required to refer patients to other physicians who will provide the appropriate care.

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3) THE AAPLOG PRESS RELEASE, OPPOSING THE ACOG POSITION:

AAPLOG NEWS RELEASE
For Release:
September 14, 2005

STATEMENT OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PRO-LIFE OBSTETRICIANS AND GYNECOLOGISTS on the ACOG letter to U.S. Senators

 In a letter to United States Senators dated August 30, 2005, Dr. Michael Mennuti, writing as President of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), and claiming he is "representing 49,000 physicians-(the ACOG general membership was neither
consulted, nor informed regarding the letter)--has requested the United States Congress to require doctors with moral objections to refer for abortions.  Urging the Senators to alter the current Abortion Non-Discrimination Act, Mennuti states, "Doctors who morally object to abortion should be required to refer patients to other physicians who will provide the appropriate care."

The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), the largest single Special Interest Group within ACOG, finds this request abhorrent.

ACOG leadership has repeatedly and forcefully argued against any and all legislation that would require the slightest limitation on any aspect of abortion. They have held that such legislation would amount to government interference in the practice of medicine and that the issue of abortion should be a matter between a woman and her doctor. In a dramatic reversal, they now are encouraging the government to interfere in this very same matter, by directing the actions of the doctor involved.

The Hippocratic Oath has been the backbone of ethical medical practice for over 2000 years in the Western world. Many physicians practicing today explicitly took this oath when they began the practice of medicine, and many more subscribe to it. This oath prohibits one who follows it from performing an abortion.

Those who morally object to abortion usually do so because they understand abortion as the taking of innocent life. To require a physician who believes this to refer someone for an abortion would force him or her to be complicit in that act. Our judicial system
recognizes the legal equivalence of this moral principle when it discerns accomplices and accessories in the setting of a crime.

A government forcing physicians who morally object to abortion to participate in abortion through referral would be a draconian measure more consonant with the actions of a repressive regime then with the tenets of a free society.

That ACOG would call for such a drastic measure can only be seen as an act of desperation from an old guard of abortion activism increasingly surrounded by a rising culture of life.

We urge the United State Congress to disregard all such requests, and to instead take action protecting the rights of conscience of all those who participate in medical care.

The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists represents over 2000 Obstetricians and Gynecologists  and partners in women's health, and is a Special Interest Group of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Previous Article, 1/05

President Bush signed the omnibus bill [Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005] containing the Hyde-Weldon Amendment, which protects health care entities from being forced to provide, pay for, or refer for abortions. This wording is very similar to that of ANDA [Abortion Non-Discrimination Act] which recently came close to passing Congress.  California Attorney General Lockyer-- backed by California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Planned Parenthood—now threatens a lawsuit, calling this conscience clause amendment "an unacceptable attack on women's rights and state sovereignty."

This invention of abortion as a "woman's right" completely ignores the rights of both the health care providers and the unborn children...

Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), a doctor himself, introduced this amendment to give conscience protection to health care providers who do not want to be part of the billion-dollar abortion industry.

The Justice Department will defend this important measure. [FRC, 10Dec04]

The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) plans to attack the provision [Hyde-Weldon Conscience Protection Amendment] which prohibits discrimination against health care providers who choose not to provide/participate in abortions.

"This lawsuit is the height of hypocrisy: A 'pro-choice' group is suing so that health care providers will have no choice but to participate in abortion," said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, Esq. "Over a million abortions are done every year by willing abortion providers in this country -- now the abortion lobby wants…other health care providers with moral objections to be forced into the practice of abortion."

Abortion advocates are engaged in a concerted national effort to quash the conscience rights of health care providers and impose abortion mandates. ACLU of New Jersey intervened in a hospital merger in 2002 to attempt to force a hospital to build an abortion clinic. In Alaska, the Alaska Center for Reproductive Rights and the ACLU filed a lawsuit which forced a community hospital to do elective late-term abortions against its will.

The Hyde-Weldon Amendment provides protection to individual physicians, hospitals, health plans, nurses, and other health care providers who choose not to do abortions.

"It is frankly not surprising that a group like NFPRHA would rush to court," Ruse said. "When abortion activists fail in the democratic arena, as they so often do, they turn to the courts to achieve their goals." [LifeSiteNews.com, 14Dec04]

The Hyde-Weldon Amendment is presently functioning and will remain in effect until such time that a judge puts an injunction upon it. [phone conversation with NCHLA, 3Jan05]