ACOG may redo abortion conscience policy
Some anti-abortion doctors fear their board certification would be at risk if they refuse to refer patients to doctors willing to perform the procedure.
By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. April 14, 2008.
Under fire from anti-abortion physicians and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists announced in March that it will re-examine a controversial November 2007 opinion outlining the limits of conscientious refusal.
The ACOG ethics committee opinion said physicians who have religious or moral objections to "standard practices," such as abortion, sterilization or the prescribing of contraceptives, are not ethically obligated to provide those services but do owe patients a timely referral to another doctor willing to deliver them.
For months, anti-abortion doctors have complained that the opinion disrespects doctors' rights to practice medicine in accord with their beliefs. But the controversy reached a crescendo when Leavitt released a letter to leaders of ACOG and the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Read full article in American Medical News
This page last updated April 8, 2008 19:11 .