Last week Pro-Life Texans adopted an unprecedented Pro-Life Platform at the Republican Party of Texas State Convention. Simultaneously medical professionals from across the country gathered in a convention of their own to discuss ways to thwart life-saving Pro-Life laws after Roe v. Wade is overturned.
This is an exciting time for the Pro-Life movement. The tide is turning in the American political sphere and Pro-Lifers are winning extraordinary victories for Life. Laws like the Texas Heartbeat Act, which are the strongest protections for preborn babies since Roe, are being passed and enforced. Soon the Dobbs v. Jackson decision will be released by the Supreme Court of the United States, a decision that is likely to overturn the nearly 50-year-old erroneous precedent of Roe v. Wade.
Yet, as they have demonstrated time and again, anti-Life groups are hellbent on fighting for their “right” to kill innocent preborn children through abortion. In an ironic and tragic departure from the duties of the medical profession, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Medical Association (AMA) have planted themselves firmly in the anti-Life camp.
ACOG released a new policy on abortion, which was approved in May, 2022. The policy declares that “ACOG strongly opposes any effort that impedes access to abortion care.” As if that wasn’t bad enough, ACOG goes even further, stating that they will seek “to integrate abortion as a component of mainstream medical care.” ACOG has been overtly pro-abortion for decades. But now their policies are beginning to grow into solidified strategies to circumvent legitimately-passed Pro-Life laws.
At the Annual AMA House of Delegates Meeting, which took place in Chicago in early June, ACOG introduced resolutions responding to the recent increase in Pro-Life victories. One of these resolutions changes foundational AMA policies to reflect the newly-adopted ACOG policy on abortion. AMA delegates adopted this resolution, declaring abortion a human right and condemning laws that protect preborn children by restricting abortion.
A second, more concrete resolution, which was approved unanimously, calls for the AMA to establish and lead a task force to “preserve the patient-physician relationship in areas where … abortion is banned or restricted.” The goals of the task force created by the resolution would be accomplished by proposing and implementing “actionable steps to mitigate the effect of legislative interference.” In a misguided attempt to preserve the relationship between physician and patient, the delegates at the AMA meeting have completely abandoned the second patient present in the relationship: the preborn child.
ACOG and AMA are openly and actively seeking ways to violate life-saving laws in order to continue committing abortions. They are even going so far as to encourage and brainstorm ways for physicians to flatly break states’ Pro-Life laws. These resolutions are extreme, indicating how politics has come to influence medicine and how far these groups have drifted from their core obligation to do no harm.
Though ACOG purports to be the sole authoritative voice of the nearly 23,000 OB-GYNs in the United States, groups like the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) continue to have membership in the thousands. In fact, until 2013, AAPLOG was recognized as a special interest affiliate of ACOG. Now, ACOG conveniently ignores the fact that the majority of OB-GYNs do not commit abortions. The tragic truth is that Pro-Life voices are actively silenced in the medical community.
Even as Pro-Life states win legislative victories and our country rapidly approaches a post-Roe world, the war is far from over. Anti-Life powers continue to grow more extreme and the war for Life is still being fought. Thankfully, Texas has passed a historically Pro-Life Platform, affirming Texas Republicans’ commitment to leading the charge on building a state that is both abortion-free and truly Pro-Life.
To contend with these anti-Life powers, Texas will have to hold abortionists accountable to our Pro-Life laws using private civil enforcement, the tool that made the Texas Heartbeat Act massively effective. This enforcement mechanism is what allowed the Texas Heartbeat Act to fend off legal attacks and stay in effect for now 9 months, saving over 25,000 lives!
With groups like ACOG and AMA clearly making their intentions known to encourage doctors to break Pro-Life laws, we must extend the use of this civil enforcement mechanism to all current and future Pro-Life laws. By doing so, we will ensure that Texas law is followed, anti-Life attempts to go around the law are foiled, and preborn lives are actually saved.