A new study is shining a light on the type of people who become abortionists. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology, the study from the Charlotte Lozier Institute examined 85 abortionists in the state of Florida, with the purpose of determining whether laws mandating hospital admitting privileges are necessary.
The authors — James Studnicki, Tessa Longbons, John Fisher, Donna Harrison, Ingrid Skop and Sharon MacKinnon — declared they had no conflict of interest when it came to the subject matter, and then reported on what they found when they studied abortionists. “Controversy exists regarding whether doctors who perform abortions should be required to hold hospital admitting privileges,” they wrote. “[B]ut no research exists as to the extent to which they actually hold and use such privileges.” The authors said they used the following method to identify abortionists:
First, a complete list of Florida abortion facilities was compiled using lists published by the Florida Department of Health (FDoH) and organizations interested in abortion provision. Second, the websites of these facilities were checked for physician names and Internet searches were performed to find physicians associated with the facilities. Third, each physician was associated with abortion by at least 2 different sources and then each physician’s FDoH practitioner profile was checked to ensure that he or she was a medical doctor or osteopathic physician who was licensed in Florida between 2011 and 2016. Physicians who self-identified as board certified by the American Board of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ABOG) were validated by the ABOG Diplomate Verification Search System.
They found the following, among other things:
- Nearly all abortionists — 74 percent — are men.
- 62 percent of them have been practicing for over 30 years.
- Roughly half of the abortionists had hospital admitting privileges, and most of these abortionists only had a single hospital admission.
- The nine doctors who had frequent hospital admissions were board-certified obstetricians, and were admitting their patients for live deliveries, not for abortion-related injuries.
READ: Abortionists describe how easy it is to botch abortions and injure women
Disparities in treatment of patients by race
However, almost 40 percent of admissions for Black and Medicaid patients from abortionists who didn’t frequently use the hospital came through the emergency room, with the study authors noting “abortionists who use the hospital the least are proportionally more likely to use the ED as a path to admission.” The study notes, “Of those doctors who hold and use hospital privileges, the lowest admission volume physicians are significantly less likely to be involved in live births, more likely to admit commercially insured and white inpatients, and much more likely to use the emergency room as the route to hospital admissions for their Medicaid-eligible and black patients.”
The study authors also noted that the disparity when it comes to race has been backed up by previous abortion data, like that of the CDC, which has found that despite being a minority in the United States, Black women have a disproportionate number of abortions. Lozier noted in its article on the study:
Inpatient admissions from abortionists are disproportionately black and poor, reflecting the disparity in the incidence of abortion affecting this minority group, among whom Centers for Disease Control data for 1990-2014 show a 3.4 times higher abortion rate than for whites.
Malpractice claims
Additionally, almost half — 48% — had at least one malpractice claim, disciplinary action, public complaint, or criminal charge lodged against them. While the results were not disclosed in the study, it is interesting to note. According to the American Medical Association, it is not unusual for physicians to have malpractice claims filed against them. Approximately 1 in 3 doctors will be sued for malpractice at some point in their careers, but the overwhelming majority see those cases dismissed. Without even including disciplinary actions, public complaints, or criminal charges, abortionists seem to have a higher rate than other doctors of being accused of malpractice.
‘The lowest of the low’
Medical students and young doctors have frequently refused to learn how to commit abortions, much to the consternation of abortion advocates; those who do say they are often shunned. Meanwhile, abortionists frequently complain they are not respected by the medical community; late-term abortionist Susan Robinson, for example, complained about how abortionists are seen by other doctors. “If you do abortions, it is very hard to get the privilege to work in a hospital, because they don’t like abortion providers,” she said in an interview with AFP after the documentary “After Tiller” (in which she was featured) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. “They are almost all done in outpatient clinics, free-standing clinics, in this country. Being an abortion provider is very stigmatized. Other doctors look down on you and think of you as like the lowest of the low.”
Warren Hern, a late-term abortionist also featured in “After Tiller,” likewise complained about how the medical community treats abortionists. “Increasingly, doctors have been made to feel irrelevant,” he complained in an op-ed. “Feminist abortion clinics treat doctors like technicians and are especially contemptuous of male physicians. Entrepreneurs who treat abortion strictly as a retail business also tend to treat doctors as technicians. Doctors who perform abortions have usually acquiesced in these roles, and their status has plummeted lower than that of physicians who do insurance company examinations.” Diane Derzis, an abortion facility owner, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that even abortion supporters see abortionists as “dirty.”
This new study may shed some light as to why the medical community is so disenchanted with abortionists; these authors have reinforced that the abortion industry preys on minorities and the poor, and seems to indicate that abortionists are more likely to do shoddy work. Combine these things with the reality that abortionists make their living by taking life, it’s no wonder they’re treated as they are.
Editor’s Note, 4/19/19: Added in quote from Lozier Institute.
“Like” Live Action News on Facebook for more pro-life news and commentary!
