In the U.S. this week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas upheld a law requiring Mifeprex abortions to be performed according to the FDA protocol.
Several AAPLOG members spent many hours helping to defend this legislation, and you can read the amicus brief that we submitted in this case — http://aaplog.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/13-51008-Planned-Parenthood-v-Abbott-amicus-brief-of-AAPLOG-et-al.pdf
AAPLOG commends the Court for upholding the law that protects Texas women from the irresponsible use of this powerful abortion drug.
Internationally, there is good news as well. Bear with me as I give you some background.
In 2000, the nations of the world agreed to work toward 8 goals called the Millennium Development Goals — http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
Goal 5 (MDG 5) is “Improve Maternal Health”.
In 2007, MDG 5 was morphed into “Improving Women’s Health” at a high level international conference called “Women Deliver”, and at that conference it was made clear that legalization of abortion was dishonestly portrayed as an essential step in achieving MDG 5.
With this “abortion first” mentality, one of the conference speakers identified four major obstacles which blocked progress toward worldwide abortion legalization:
#1 Obstacle: You.
Health care workers rights of conscientious refusal to perform abortions constituted one of the major obstacles to worldwide elective abortion legalization.
That is because although the pro-abortion coalition can force sovereign nations into legalizing elective abortion by withholding development money, the individual physicians and nurses can still refuse to perform them.
#2 Obstacle: The involvement of the Roman Catholic Church in the health care infrastructure in Latin America, and the involvement of Protestant Missionaries in the health care infrastructure in Africa.
#3 Obstacle: Ultrasound which “unfortunately” turns the mind of the mother toward the humanity of her fetus and
#4 Obstacle: National Sovereignty. The people themselves do not want elective abortion in their nation.
The last 7 years have seen an unprecedented war on the rights of conscience of healthcare providers, as we have experienced here with the infamous ACOG Ethics Statement # 385 (released shortly after the Women Deliver Conference in 2007) and continuing to be reechoed in various forms including the upcoming Georgetown Law Spring Conversations “The Limits of Conscientious Objection to Abortion: Case of the Scottish Midwives” and the March 14 article in the Guardian (UK) [ http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/mar/14/global-goals-must-tackle-traditional-beliefs-that-block-progress-csw ], and culminating here in the US with the Affordable Care Act, which targets even the conscience rights of employers and private citizens.
[AAPLOG is an amicus on over 15 cases including the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood cases now being argued before the U.S. Supreme Court]
Since the MDG’s are due to expire in 2015, international pro-abortion forces such as IPAS and UNFPA are mounting incredible pressure on the nations of the world to legalize abortion worldwide.
“Call for Universal Access to Safe Legal Abortion” [ http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/03/call-universal-access-safe-legal-abortion/ ] and the “Airlie Declaration” are just two examples.
Tragically, these documents deceive the unsuspecting by failing to note that the term “safe” abortion has been defined by the WHO to mean abortions that meet LEGAL requirements.
Thus “safe” is a legal not a medical term.
Legalizing abortion makes abortion “safe” for the abortionist, but not for the woman or her unborn child.
AAPLOG supports the factors which lead to better health for women and their families, including education, abstinence from sexual activity prior to marriage, sexual faithfulness of both spouses within marriage.
But AAPLOG opposes the confusion of women’s reproductive health with promotion of elective abortion, which is included in the euphemism” sexual and reproductive health and rights”.
This pressure was exemplified a few weeks ago at the UN conference called the Commission on the Status of Women.
At that conference, pro-abortion forces attempted again to ram through language in a document which could be used to pressure sovereign nations into legalizing abortion.
And….they failed again!
Here are a few links which tell the story:
PNCIUS 104 — http://www.pncius.org/update.aspx?id=104
PNCIUS 101 — http://www.pncius.org/update.aspx?id=101
It is more important than ever that we, as physicians, speak about the harmful effects of abortion as published in the medical literature.
The AAPLOG website is being used by physicians all over the world as a resource about the harmful effects of abortion and to dispel the myth of “safe” abortion.
The lie that abortion is ever “safe” must be debunked.
[1 Apr 2014, AAPLOG, Donna Harrison, MD]