ACOG agenda laid bare by amicus brief

An amicus brief on behalf of Louisiana (see related article) was filed by the Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) to assist SCOTUS in its review of La. Department of Health v. June Medical Services LLC. A related article in the Wall Street Journal is here.

The AAPLOG brief questions whether ACOG (the College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) is truly objective in its abortion views, and accuses ACOG of being an abortion advocacy organization.

On page 15 of the brief, AAPLOG states that it has an interest in showing that ACOG “does not represent the views of either its membership or the 85% of obstetricians and gynecologists in the United States who do not perform abortions.”

An excerpt makes clear how ACOG has reversed its pro-life stance over the years:

ACOG’s 1959 Manual of Standards in Obstetric-Gynecologic Practice permitted abortion only “where the death of the mother might reasonably be expected to result from natural causes, growing out of or aggravated by the pregnancy, unless the child is destroyed.” The Manual also mandated that abortions could be performed only in accredited hospitals. ACOG’s Committee on Maternal Welfare, noting that the justifications for therapeutic abortions were disappearing, “hoped that they may reach an absolute minimum within the foreseeable future,” doing away with abortions altogether…

…As of the 1950s, ACOG’s contribution to public debate about abortion was based solely upon medical science. Dr. Duncan Reid (ACOG board member) of Harvard Medical School argued that “the medical profession should not become actively involved in debates about social mores. … [T]he emergence of abortion and sterilization as political issues would challenge the scientific basis on which physicians’ decisions were based. Reid said, ‘If it [abortion] becomes a social problem then the medical profession has to settle the social problem, and I think we, as doctors, are placed in a position where we do not belong.’”

The amicus brief delineates ACOG’s history, and discloses that in every major abortion case, ACOG has argued consistently against any limitation of abortion. The document cites from 19 legal cases and provides many references to statements in ACOG reports, legal briefs and other sources. Read more!

IF ONLY this brief could have been filed on behalf of Kentucky in any of the numerous ACLU/EMW/PP legal suits which have claimed that ACOG is the scientific, medical authority on the abortion issue, how might the outcomes for our pro-life laws been affected?

Immense THANKS to AAPLOG for revealing the slippery slope engineered by ACOG over 50 years to re-make abortion as medical “care”.