The nation’s foremost medical lobbying group has rejected a resolution saying that abortion survivors should be given proper medical care after a failed abortion.
The American Medical Association (AMA) recently held a meeting in Chicago, during which Dr. Thomas Eppes – who identifies as “pro-choice” – introduced a resolution calling for the “highest standard of neonatal care” for an abortion survivor, if they are born alive after an attempted abortion at a viable gestational age, typically around 22 weeks. Yet the resolution was roundly rejected in a 476-106 vote.
“Our policy should be based on science, it should be based on fact, and it should be based on the best available evidence that honors and upholds the value of the patient-physician relationship and the nuance and complexity of medical care,” Dr. Kavita Arora, a delegate from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) who was speaking on behalf of the ACOG section council and the Specialty and Service societies, said at the meeting. “It is not a one-size-fits-all approach and should not be based on misinformation or disinformation. I strongly urge you to oppose.”
Eppes also argued on behalf of his resolution, insisting that the goal was not to punish a woman for undergoing an abortion, or to indicate that abortion should not be legal.
“This position is not to argue the woman’s right to choose,” he said. “The decision to abort is still between the patient and the physician. It does not imply the woman’s responsibility for the fetal life, but this resolution places the burden of care on the physician, who now has to care for two patients once the fetus is viable.”
Abortion advocates frequently argue that abortion survivors do not exist, but data indicates otherwise. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that, over the course of 12 years, more than a hundred infants were reported to have survived for at least a short time after abortions. A recent Minnesota abortion report, for example, revealed that five children were born alive during abortions in that state in 2021 alone. Furthermore, none of them received medical care — in other words, they were left to die. Another report found that over 100 babies were born alive following abortions in just five states over approximately 10 years.
Abortion, the intentional taking of a preborn child’s life, is never acceptable – but to further deny an abortion survivor medical care is not an “evidence-based” practice honoring science. Giving an abortion survivor medical care should be an unobjectionable practice without any controversy whatsoever… and one the country’s leading medical organization should stand behind.
