The nation’s largest obstetricians and gynecologists professional organization can’t defend their pro-abortion positions against public opinion or science, so they banned pro-life doctors from sharing science-based information about life in the womb at their annual education conference.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) confirmed to The Federalist on Tuesday that it barred members of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) from hosting a booth at the former’s conference this week because of the pro-life doctors’ belief in the equal sanctity of all human life.
The incoming president of AAPLOG, Dr. Christina Francis, announced on Monday that, despite 15 years of hosting a booth at the ACOG’s Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology meeting, AAPLOG was denied entry upon their representatives’ arrival.
AAPLOG booked their conference booth through the ACOG last year but it wasn’t until after the pro-life doctors arrived in Maryland this week that ACOG informed them their exhibit was canceled.
“Despite multiple requests for an explanation as to why, the only explanation we’ve received is a vague explanation that we disagree with ACOG, presumably on the issue of abortion,” Francis explained in a video outside of the conference venue on Monday.
Only doctors who share ACOG’s views, ACOG spokeswoman Rachel Kingery told The Federalist, are granted permission to participate as exhibitors.
“ACOG members are welcome to register for and attend ACOG meetings. At the CREOG – APGO Annual Meeting, ACOG also welcomes exhibitors that align with ACOG’s and APGO’s shared commitment to the advancement of evidence-based, scientific information,” she said.
When pressed on whether AAPLOG was stripped of its booth this year because ACOG does not believe its pro-life views fit that commitment, Kingery replied “yes.” The pro-life doctors’ organization says it provides “an evidence-based rationale for defending the lives of both the pregnant mother and her pre-born child.”
The theme of ACOG’s conference this year is “Building Bridges: Creating Connection in Medical Education.” But, Francis noted, ACOG expressed “no desire to build bridges with those of us who disagree even a little bit with them on their position on abortion.”
“Scientific advancement is made through the free exchange of ideas, and through critically looking at both sides of an issue and deciding which the evidence better support,” Francis explained. “However, ACOG obviously is afraid for students and residents and for their medical educators to be exposed to any other position on abortion other than their radical position.”
Even though 86 percent of U.S. OB-GYNs say they do not wish to abort babies in the womb, ACOG declares that its OBGYNS believe that “defending” and “expanding” who can give and get an abortion “is essential health care.”
The organization maintains that babies in the womb do not feel pain until at least 24 weeks gestation. Yet studies show that pain receptors begin forming in preborn infants as early as 10 weeks of gestation and the nerves in a child’s spine required to signal the brain are fully formed by 15 weeks old.
ACOG also dissuades its members from using more than a dozen scientifically accurate terms such as “unborn baby,” “elective abortion,” “womb,” and “abortion-on-demand” to describe the realities of ending life in the womb.
The deeply unpopular decision to end a baby’s life in the third trimester, ACOG claims, should be called “Abortion later in pregnancy” instead of “Late-term abortion.” Pointing out babies born alive “partial-birth abortions,” ACOG says should be avoided because it is “graphic” and “inflammatory.”
To ACOG, “Heartbeat bills,” which are responsible for saving thousands of babies’ lives, are “Gestational age bans.”
Even though there’s an endless stream of scientific evidence confirming the presence of an unborn baby’s beating heart very early in pregnancy, ACOG says “It is clinically inaccurate to use the word ‘heartbeat’ to describe the sound that can be heard on ultrasound in very early pregnancy” because what “pregnant people may hear is the ultrasound machine translating electronic impulses that signify fetal cardiac activity into the sound that we recognize as a heartbeat.”
Francis recognizes that ACOG’s stances are out of touch with the public and unscientific. She says that is why she invited ACOG CEO Dr. Maureen Phipps to debate her “on the impact of elective abortion on the health of women.”
“I will meet her anytime, anyplace so that we can present both sides of this issue and allow not only the general public, but also the next generation of physicians to decide for themselves what the evidence supports,” Francis concluded.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.
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