Top OBGYN Organization: Abortion Is 'Settled Science'

The leader of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the nation's top professional organization for OB-GYNs, has told an anti-abortion doctors' group she will not participate in a debate on abortion because the matter is "settled science."

The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) had invited the OB-GYN organization to a debate at Duke University, hosted by the Kenan Institute for Ethics' Civil Discourse Project, to weigh whether "induced abortion" should be considered good medical practice, the Washington Examiner reported.

But Dr. Maureen Phipps, the CEO of the national OB-GYN organization, responded her group "will not debate abortion as an essential part of reproductive healthcare," according to a statement obtained by the Examiner.

Instead, she added, "we will continue to affirm that the role of abortion in our patients' lives is settled science."

AAPLOG CEO Dr. Christina Francis commented the response showed the nation's foremost group for OB-GYNs is stating that support for abortion is not up for discussion, even though most doctors in the field do not perform the procedure.

"Stating that this is settled science ignores the fact that the vast majority of OB-GYNs do not perform elective abortion," she said. "It also clearly ignores the vast majority of the medical evidence out there that shows that elective abortions do not improve the health outcomes of our patients, and in many cases, actively worsen the health outcomes. What ACOG is trying to do is make it appear that all OB-GYNs feel this way, when that's very clearly not the case."

ACOG did not respond to questions about what it considers to be settled science, or if it thinks anti-abortion doctors still have a place in the profession.

But Francis said someone who believes "settled science" applies to most decisions or practices in the medical field "probably needs to get out of medicine."

"Saying something is settled science hearkens back to people being so confident that the Earth was flat that they considered that settled science and the only way that we discovered that that wasn't the case was through someone questioning that narrative, questioning that status quo, and looking for better answers," she said.

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