AMA retains opposition to assisted suicide
Following several years of interim and annual meetings, the American Medical Association held the line against pressure to promote euthanizing patients. By a one-sided margin of 65-35, physician members of the Council on Ethics and Judicial Affairs affirmed CEJA 2, the report recommending the AMA retain its opposition to assisted suicide. This vote is significant because the AMA, one of the nation’s largest medical organizations, is very influential when it comes to policy decisions and shaping public opinion.
The AMA policy states: “It is understandable, though tragic, that some patients in extreme duress — such as those suffering from a terminal, painful, debilitating illness — may come to decide that death is preferable to life. However, allowing physicians to participate in assisted suicide would cause more harm than good. Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks. [Lifenews.com, 6/10/19]
Abortion pill reversal numbers growing
The abortion pill reversal (APR) continues to save babies whose mothers changed their minds after taking the chemical abortion pill, with a reported 750 unborn babies saved from abortion.
The chemical abortion pill, also known as RU 486, regimen involves two drugs. Mifepristone blocks progesterone, the hormone needed to sustain a pregnancy. Misoprostol induces labor, causing a woman’s body to expel the baby. To save her baby, a woman must begin the reversal treatment within 72 hours after taking the first drug. After that point, the success rate of abortion pill reversal diminishes.
Dr. Matthew Harrison performed the first-ever abortion pill reversal in 2007. Research has shown the reversal is safe for the mother and her unborn baby.
When Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts signed LB 209, Nebraska joined eight other states in requiring that women be informed about abortion pill reversal (APR). The other eight are Arizona, Arkansas, South Dakota, Utah, Idaho, North Dakota, Kentucky, and Oklahoma.
The Abortion Pill Rescue helpline number is 877-558-0333 and the website is www.abortionpillreversal.com. Women are put in touch with a pro-life pregnancy center or physician in their area to begin the process. [Lifenews.com, 7/3/19, 7/15/19]
HHS announces new rules protecting conscience
In May, the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services announced new rules protecting doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals from being forced to violate their consciences by participating in abortion, sterilization, or assisted suicide. Though existing laws have protected conscience rights for over 30 years, these laws are being violated as doctors, nurses, and medical students are being compelled to participate in abortion. In fact, the HHS Civil Rights Office received over 1,000 complaints in 2018 claiming conscience violations or religious discrimination.
One complaint came from a Catholic nurse working at the University of Vermont Medical Center who had informed the hospital of her pro-life beliefs. Pro-life attorney Jay Sekulow, from the American Center for Law and Justice, explained, “Her superiors deliberately misled her into thinking she was assisting in a procedure following a miscarriage. But once trapped inside the OR, she discovered that it was, in fact, an elective abortion and that this had been known all along by her superiors who then callously refused to relieve her. To say that she was emotionally traumatized by this event is putting it mildly.”
The new HHS rule’s compliance standards make it easier for HHS to investigate and prosecute conscience cases. HHS Civil Rights Office director Roger Severino explains, “This rule ensures that healthcare entities and professionals won’t be bullied out of the health care field because they decline to participate in actions that violate their conscience.”
“This isn’t just a win for conscience rights and the First Amendment, it vividly demonstrates that elections matter. People are policy. Which means, worldview matters. The law can be super clear, but if executive branch appointees are unwilling to enforce it, our freedoms are at stake,” explains John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview.
The new HHS rules have been challenged in federal court by Planned Parenthood and a number of other pro-abortion groups. [Lifenews.com, 6/11/19, 6/18/19; 8/28/19; Breakpoint.com, 8/30/19; www.wng.org, 9/4/19]
Portland: An abortion destination?
In July, the Portland City Council passed a resolution that “condemns any attempt to restrict, prohibit, or otherwise impede access to safe and legal abortion care.” Lois Anderson, director of Oregon Right to Life, called the resolution a charade and a waste of resources, saying, “Oregon has zero restrictions on abortion and, in fact, abortion rights have been built into our statutes.”
In June, Waskom, Texas, passed a resolution to never allow an abortion facility in their city, creating a “sanctuary city of the unborn.” [www.wng.org, 8/2/19]
Abortionist keeps 2,246 aborted baby remains at his home
The attorney of Indiana abortionist Dr. Ulrich Klopfer, who died September 3, reported that the abortionist had transported 2,246 medically preserved human fetal remains from his abortion facility to his Illinois home 100 miles away. The attorney contacted the coroner’s office in the Will County Sheriff’s Office, which took possession of the remains. An investigation is underway by the attorneys general of Indiana and Illinois.
Klopfer was believed to be Indiana’s most prolific abortionist, having performed thousands of abortions in several Indiana counties over several decades, according to the South Bend Tribune. Klopfer’s abortion facility closed in March 2016 after the state of Indiana revoked its license. The Indiana State Department of Health had issued complaints against the facility including submitting erroneous state-mandated terminated pregnancy reports, waiting too long to report abortions on girls age 13 or younger, and having unqualified staff members provide pre-abortion information and counseling to patients, according to the Tribune. In previous years, state health inspectors had found staff members taking home soiled linens to launder, delayed disposal of an abortion specimen, and poorly maintained emergency response equipment in abortion clinics overseen by Klopfer.
The president of Indiana Right to Life, Mike Fichter, said, “We are horrified. These sickening reports underscore why the abortion industry must be held to the highest scrutiny.” United States Representative Jackie Walorski, R-Jimtown, called the discovery “sickening beyond words.” Walorski lamented, “He was responsible for thousands of abortions in Indiana, and his careless treatment of human remains is an outrage!”
In a 2015 interview with the Tribune, Klopfer complained that state officials were targeting him and defended his medical care, saying, “I’ve never lost a patient. No patient of mine in all the years I’ve been doing abortions has ever had a major complication.” He obviously wasn’t including all the unborn babies who died in his abortion rooms. [South Bend Tribune, 9/14/19; www.wng.org, 9/16/19; FRC Action, 9/16/19]
Planned Parenthood whistleblower awarded $3 million
Planned Parenthood employee Mayra Rodriguez was recently awarded $3 million in damages after she reported problems at the Arizona facility she ran. Rodriguez reported problems with a particular abortionist who, before an abortion had even begun, required five medical assistants to sign an affidavit saying he had completed the abortion and removed the entire baby. Rodriguez also reported an abortionist who falsified a patient’s chart by failing to record an incomplete abortion. Rodriguez also revealed that a supervisor failed to report an abortion performed on a minor impregnated by an adult, a violation of state law.
Kristina Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the pro-life group And Then There Were None, said that when Rodriguez was out of town for a week, someone claimed to have found narcotics in her desk. Planned Parenthood fired her the next day. However, Hernandez said the drugs were not narcotics, but medication that had not yet been transferred to the purchasing department for disposal, a common practice. Rodriguez sued for wrongful termination and a jury unanimously awarded her $3 million in damages. Hernandez says Rodriguez “wants to focus on the fact that Planned Parenthood has been harming women and that what they talk about in the media is the complete opposite of what they do in their clinics.” [www.wng.org, 8/26/2019]
