President Obama's decision to remove personal conscience protection for health care workers who do not want to be involved with abortions is both heavy handed and misguided. No one should be forced to decide between keeping their job and participating in the death of an unborn child. This is a dictatorial message from President Obama to health care workers nationwide that you will be involved in abortions whether you like it or not. Such a tone will only serve to expand the number of abortions in the United States while placing thousands of health care workers at risk of retaliation for deeply held moral convictions.
/Christian Newswire/ -- A Los Angeles Times story today reveals that President Obama plans to rescind a regulation put in place last year by the Bush Administration that protects health care workers' rights to follow their consciences by refusing to participate in abortion and the distribution of cancer-causing hormonal steroids (i.e. hormonal contraceptives/abortifacients). [1]
"Obama's decision hurts women's health," declared Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer. "Basic medical texts acknowledge that women can help prevent breast cancer by having more children, starting at a younger age, and breastfeeding them longer. The woman who chooses not to have a baby (i.e. abortion), therefore, has a higher breast cancer risk than the one who has a baby. Additionally, the World Health Organization classified combined (estrogen + progestin) hormonal contraceptives as Group 1 carcinogens in 2006. [2] Why aren't women being told?
"Instead, the government is physically abusing women through its determined pursuit of an antiquated population control policy. The Obama Administration is sacrificing scientific integrity and women's health in order to pursue an ideological agenda.
"A half-century of research shows that abortion further increases risk by leaving the mother's breasts with more places for cancers to start. [3,4] This phenomenon finds additional biological support in epidemiological studies reporting that premature birth before 32 weeks gestation increases breast cancer risk. [5,6,7,8] The Institute of Medicine acknowledges that abortion puts mothers at risk for premature birth. [9]
"The Obama Administration should not mandate abortion as the standard of care because abortion is bad medicine. Two hundred years ago, bloodletting was the standard of care, and some patients died. Also, doctors did not wash their hands before delivering babies, so women died of childbed fever. Medicine has only progressed since that time because there were courageous doctors and scientists willing to challenge their peers to bring their practices up-to-date as new scientific evidence became available.
"If Obama rescinds the conscience-protecting regulation, women will not be given their rights to know about a large body of scientific evidence implicating abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer, premature birth, placenta previa, suicide and other forms of emotional harm." [10]
"The Mexico City Policy was rescinded late on a Friday afternoon last month. When there is a cowardly decision to be made on abortion in a low profile way, Obama does it on Fridays when journalists are less likely to pay attention."
The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is an international women's organization founded to protect the health and save the lives of women by educating and providing information on abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer.
Obama's Suppression of Health Care Workers' Conscience Rights will Worsen Breast Cancer, Premature Birth Epidemics