Leading medical groups in obstetrics, gynecology, and family planning explicitly endorsed abortion without restrictions in a recent op-ed condemning anti-abortion leaders, leading anti-abortion advocates to emphasize further the need for gestational limits on the controversial procedure.
“Abortion is safe. It improves and saves lives, and it must be available without restrictions, without limitations and without barriers — just as any other critical part of health care,” wrote Christopher Zahn, the chief executive of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Jenni Villavicencio, the public affairs director for the Society of Family Planning.
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The authors published their article on Wednesday in response to what they classify as “misleading information” from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser and former senior counselor to then-President Donald Trump Kellyanne Conway, who recently co-wrote their own opinion piece on why Republicans need to be even tougher on abortion.
Zahn and Villavicencio, who call themselves “advocates for unrestricted access to abortion care,” say that the rhetoric from Dannenfelser and Conway “is commonly used to strip access to abortion from patients such as ours and prevent clinicians from providing people with evidence-based health care.”
“Americans are compassionate people and overwhelmingly reject all-trimester abortions on demand,” Dannenfelser said in a response to the Wednesday article. “The more they learn of the extremist positions of organizations in power, the more they reject them.”
A spokesperson for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which represents approximately 60,000 OB-GYNs in North and South America, confirmed for the Washington Examiner that the organization endorses abortion without gestational age limits, even up to the time of birth.
SBA Pro-Life America has been highly critical of GOP candidates in the 2024 election cycle that have not been clear on their standards for federal abortion limits and have promised to withhold their endorsement from any Republican candidate who does not support a 15 weeks gestation federal ban.
At 15 weeks gestation or earlier, there is a strong medical consensus that a fetus can feel pain.
“In an informed debate, the truth is what matters,” Dannenfelser said, “and now we finally hear the truth from the abortion lobby.”
Ingrid Skop, a Texas OB-GYN with nearly 30 years experience and the director of medical affairs at the anti-abortion Charlotte Lozier Institute, also commented on the opinion piece, saying that there ought to be greater medical debate on the controversial issue.
“This brazen proclamation from ACOG, while sad to see, is reflective of a discouraging new reality: In ACOG’s leadership and the broader medical community, there’s no place for dissent on the issue of unlimited abortion for any reason, at any time in pregnancy,” Skop said.
Skop also said that the college’s position was ironic, considering that only 7% of OB-GYNs in private practice provide abortion services, according to the pro-abortion research and policy organization the Guttmacher Institute.
A spokesperson for the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which was a “special interest group” within the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists until 2013, told the Washington Examiner that the article from Zahn and Villavicencio was “a purely political statement, not a medical one.”
“ACOG’s open endorsement of induced abortion at any point in pregnancy and for any reason is a reflection of neither the medical evidence nor excellent healthcare for our patients,” AAPLOG said. “It is out of step with the views of this nation’s OB-GYNs, the vast majority of whom do not perform induced abortions. Obstetricians enter this specialty to promote the health of both pregnant and preborn patients.”
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“We are witnessing, in real time, a vocal, political takeover of a scientific community that represents the most honorable and beautiful profession, responsible for safely bringing new life into the world,” Skop said. “I wish ACOG would realize that their promotion of elective abortion without limits isn’t reflective of the views of their own members.”
The Society of Family Planning did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
