Portable Planet

Following is a statement from Diana Galindo, MD, president; Susan L. Ivey, MD, MHSA, immediate past president; Claudia Morrissey, MD, MPH, president-elect; and Shayna Norman, MS- III, national student president, of the American Medical Women’s Association, an organization representing women in medicine from all sub-specialties and female medical students in the United States:

The American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) strongly opposes the recent Supreme Court decision to allow a federal ban on a specific abortion procedure (the dilation and extraction procedure) that may be necessary in some cases to preserve a woman’s health. The upheld law contains no exception that safeguards a woman’s physical and mental health. We are very concerned about the failure of this law to consider the woman’s health in the banning of a specific procedure that may be the safest procedure for women in certain circumstances.

This flawed court decision criminalizes the very private medical relationship between a woman and her physician during a fundamental decision- making process that balances the needs of women and their families. A woman, her family and her physician do not go through this decision without a great deal of agony and forethought. Only those individuals involved know the medical and psychological factors, fears and concerns, that are discussed with the physician and which impact the decision. Physicians are trained to respond to a serious medical condition while maximizing the health and well being of their patient. The recent Supreme Court decision creates an atmosphere where doctors are afraid to use their skill to protect the health of their patients for fear of severe penalties. As a result, the decision puts women at additional physical and psychological risk. This decision brings back a dark time when women and their physicians lived in fear of their government, and has the potential to undermine a core right that women have held since 1973.

Since the inception of our organization in 1915, AMWA has always been at the forefront of promoting women’s health and upholding the fundamental importance of the physician-patient relationship. We support the right to choose as a fundamental of women’s health care and the physician’s right to decide, with their patients, as to the best procedures to use to ensure the health of each woman and her family.

Source: AMWA