Religious News - White House defends pro-life doctors

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White House defends pro-life doctors

WASHINGTON, The White House stepped in to defend the conscience rights of pro-life physicians. Michael Leavitt, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, called on the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG) to clarify that it will not punish doctors who decline to perform abortions and refuse to refer patients to physicians who do abortions, Baptist Press reported Tuesday.

Leavitt called for ABOG to confirm it will not rely on a recommendation by the Committee on Ethics of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). In a position paper issued in November, the committee said pro-life physicians should refer women seeking abortions to doctors who will perform them and that doctors "with moral or religious objections" should locate their practices near physicians who will perform abortions.

Leavitt wrote ABOG Executive Director Norman Gant on March 14 after a new bulletin indicates support for the ACOG committee's language, threatening pro-life doctors with loss of their certification if they refuse to violate their conscience. Such a "denial or revocation" of certification could result in federally funded state and local governments, as well as other organizations, punishing affected doctors, which could break federal laws protecting the conscience rights of healthcare providers, Leavitt said.

Greg Phillips, an ACOG spokesman, told National Public Radio the position paper is an opinion and not a rule.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.

This news arrived on: 03/26/2008

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