Abortion is not healthcare. As physicians and other healthcare professionals, we know that when we care for pregnant women, we are caring for two distinct patients.  Our duty is to protect and preserve the lives of the patients whom we care for.  Our patients place their trust in us to recommend what is best for them, regardless of current political or cultural trends.

From the time the original Hippocratic Oath was introduced, there has been a clear separation of medical care from the intentional killing of human beings.  The science is clear – at the moment of fertilization, a new distinct, living and whole human being comes into existence.  Abortion, which is an action whose sole intent is to end this life, clearly violates the basic tenets of medical ethics.

Additionally, abortion treats no disease process and carries significant potential harm for women.  The  evidence is clear that abortions increase the risk of preterm delivery in future pregnancies, increase a  woman’s risk of mental health disorders and suicide and increase her risk of breast cancer if she has not  yet had a full-term pregnancy.  These risks, and the risks of her dying from abortion related complications, are even higher if the abortion is done in the second trimester and beyond.  Our patients deserve better.

Despite the politically-motivated lie that abortion is essential healthcare, the fact is that more than 90% of OB/GYN’s do not perform abortions.  This is because we all recognize abortion for what it really is – the intentional destruction of human life through barbaric methods.  Over the last two years, we have seen the medical community pull together to protect the most vulnerable amongst us.  No one is more vulnerable than preborn children, capable of feeling pain and completely dependent on our protection in order to survive.

It is time for those of us in the medical profession to boldly defend the lives of all of our patients and demand that our preborn patients be protected and our pregnant patients be empowered instead of lied to.  Women and their children deserve our support, not the destruction of abortion.

In the nearly 50 years since the Court wrongly decided Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, medical science has progressed significantly and has increasingly supported the pro-life position.  It is time that the law of our land caught up with advances in medical science and supported the human rights of all of our patients.

We would be wise to heed the words of the late Martin Luther King, Jr: “On some positions, cowardice asks the question: Is it safe? Expediency asks the question: Is it politic? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic nor popular, but he must take it, because conscience tells him it is right.”

The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM) upholds and promotes the fundamental principles of Hippocratic medicine. These principles include protecting the vulnerable at the beginning and end of life, seeking the ultimate good for the patient with compassion and moral integrity, and providing healthcare with the highest standards of excellence based on medical science.  Our organizations represent nearly 30,000 healthcare professionals.

https://www.cathmed.org/abortion-is-not-healthcare-a-message-from-the-alliance-for-hippocratic-medicine/