Doc-Bloggers Speak Out Against Laws that Threaten Women’s Rights & Ethical Medical Practice

In my last post, I spoke out against new laws that, in their zeal to limit the practice of abortion, actually threaten the practice of medicine, as well as the rights of physicians to free speech. Not to mention the fact that the laws mandate both the physical and emotional abuse of women who choose to have a completely legal medical procedure.

In this post, I want to highlight my fellow medical bloggers who have also spoken out on this issue.  If I’ve missed your post, email me and I will add it here. If you haven’t written your post yet, consider this a challenge to do so. Let’s make our voices heard.

• Jen Guntner calls the new laws  legalized malpractice and wonders how the Supreme Court could refuse to hear the case  challenging Pennsylvania’s  law that protects doctors who deliberately hide genetic test results from their patients.

• Robert Ludeke, MD speaks out against the Texas ultrasound law.

• Eijean Wu, MD reminds us of the women who are affected by these laws.

• Elaine Schattner, MD tells us that women’s rights are being threatened on three fronts – birth control, access to safe abortion and to care without intimidation or emotional abuse. She also wonders why more doctors are not speaking out.

• Skeptical OB sees the backlash against birth control as un-American.

• PalMD tells us we cannot afford to remain apart on this issue.

• Labor and Deliverance does not really want to get political, but tells us that we should not sacrifice women or mothers for the sake of controlling their options.

• Judy Stone, MD has a wonderful article in Scientific American about the use of so-called “Conscience” clauses that are anything but.

• OB Cookie, an O-Gyn resident who also loves baking ( a girl after my own heart) writes eloquently on the collateral damage to women she cares for in Texas as Rick Perry’s wages war with Planned Parenthood.

• One of the best posts (and apparently, one with an enormous amount of traffic) is unfortunately anonymous. It’s a recipe for organized civil disobedience, all in the doctor’s office and all in accordance with our duty to protect patient autonomy. Sharon Phillips, MD discusses the relative wisdom of such an approach.