Chapter 4 - The Medical Community, Abortion and the Crucial Role of Physician Advocacy

Summary

Physician approval or condemnation, advocacy or opposition, to abortion have often determined whether women can avoid the complications of unsafe abortion and, sometimes, early death.In the USA organized medicine’s early opposition to abortion outlawed it.A century later, obstetricians recognized the importance of abortion to public health.They fought to end restrictions, eventually making abortion legal in several states. At first, individual physicians violated restrictive laws, risking jail and their medical licenses.Colleagues soon supported this “civil disobedience” and influenced their professional organizations, first the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists then the American Medical Association, to take political action in support of abortion law reform.In many other nations, physicians advocated locally and through global organizations like WHO and FIGO for safe abortion to reduce maternal mortality.At medical schools, students insisted that their curriculums include contraception and abortion founding Medical Students for Choice to support advocacy for safe abortion despite official opposition at some schools.Those who planned careers in women’s health sought post graduate residency training that included abortion and became political adversaries of abortion bans in conservative states.