Kudos to Alabama pediatrician Pippa Abston for publicly speaking out for all doctors and their patients against legislation that violates women and forces doctors to choose between violating professional ethics or breaking the law. (HT to Rh Reality Check for their fabulous reporting on this issue)
In addition to posting the above video on You Tube (Let’s make it viral, folks…) Dr Abston has co-authored legislation that will protect doctors from being used as pawns by the anti-abortion movement. The bill is called the “Right to Professsional Medical Judgement Act” and is short and sweet, written unemotionally and unambiguously –
No physician or health care provider licensed to practice in the State of Alabama shall be forced by state or local regulatory authority to perform any medical service or component of medical service if the service or component of service is not medically necessary or would be harmful to the patient and the patient does not desire the medical service. The right to practice within the scope of a medical license supersedes any existing or future legislative act.
Where are our Medical Societies?
I wish the AMA and ACOG would speak out more publicly on this issue. I hope they are lobbying, but working the back room is very different from speaking out publicly for the rights of both women and their physicians who are providing a legal medical procedure. The Daily Kos has a petition circulating to the AMA asking them to speak out publicly. I encourage you to sign it.
When the Pennsylvania Medical Society spoke out against the ultrasound law in that state, the legislators promptly backed down.
The Pennsylvania House postponed a scheduled March 12 vote on the bill. House Majority leader Mike Turzai, a Republican, said the debate was cancelled due to “concerns raised by the medical community, among others,” Philly.com reported. The Pennsylvania Medical Society, which has no official position on abortion, opposes the bill because it would potentially interfere with the physician-patient relationship.
We all must speak out together against these bills that attempt to legislate medical care. As I’ve said before –
This is not just about abortion. Or women’s rights.
It’s about the practice of medicine and the rights of our patients. It’s about physician-patient privacy and the authority of doctors to practice medicine without the fear of breaking the law.
It is also about free speech.
The way these laws are written, physicians who perform abortion are being forced to read scientifically false information to patients. They are being forced to tell women that an abortion will increase their risk of breast cancer – which is simply not true.
“I’m so sorry that I have to do this,” the doctor told us, “but if I don’t, I can lose my license.” …When the description was finally over, the doctor held up a script and said he was legally obliged to read me information provided by the state. It was about the health dangers of having an abortion, the risks of infection or hemorrhage, the potential for infertility and my increased chance of getting breast cancer.
All physicians and patients, whether they are male or female, pro-choice or pro-life, Republican or Democrat, should be outraged. Our medical societies and our patient advocacy groups – every single one of them, whether related to reproductive care or not – should be fighting these laws, and engaging physicians and patients everywhere to fight back. Publicly and vocally. Or, as blogger Palmd implores us –
When it comes to the latest abortion bills we cannot afford to remain apart. We must all speak out against this violation of our ethics and our patients’ rights.
What Can You Do?
- Contact your state medical society and ask them what they are doing to protect the practice of medicine and the rights of women in your state
- Write, phone and E-mail your state and national representatives to let them know you oppose any proposed legislation that threatens women and their doctors.
- Petition the AMA to speak out publicly on this issue.
- Speak out! Pick a medium, any medium – be it you blog, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Pinterest, Tumblr, or the latest and greatest social media network I haven’t heard about yet. Make your voice be heard.
Tomorrow, I’ll be highlighting physician bloggers who are speaking out. Stay tuned -and if you know of a blog post I need to highlight, email me. I’ve got a list of about 10 so far.
Thank you this. I will share it with my colleagues. I have been writing to many of the sites you mention above. I would really like to hear something from the AMA and ACOG. This is an anonymous post from a physician on Twitter I found yesterday. This person expresses their anger well. I am not sure that you can click this link from here if not I can retweet to you.
http://t.co/lCBifxr6 via @wordpressdotcom
Thanks, Ann. I’ve added it to the list for tomorrow’s post. (Keep those links coming…)
Peggy
This would be a good time for the AMA and ACOG to speak up, but so far, nothing but crickets.
[…] my last post, I spoke out against new laws that, in their zeal to limit the practice of abortion, actually […]
I signed the DailyKos petition, I wrote to the Medical Society of NYS, and I wrote to the governor. And I put your post and the petition on Facebook. I still feel powerless.
Go Magpie! You are NOT powerless. recall how social media changed the Komen outcome. And Egypt.There is power in numbers.
Peggy
Thank you so much for posting this, and your other writing on the subject. I have been overwhelmed by issues in my personal life (I didn’t match 🙁 ) to write much recently, but this eloquent video and excellent post gave me something to post on my Facebook page on the subject.
[…] an earlier post, I spoke out against new laws that, in their zeal to limit the practice of abortion, actually […]