Podcast recap: “What’s it like to be a pro-life physician in a pro-abortion culture?” with AAPLOG

Dr. Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) invited me to record several podcast episodes with her. In this episode we explore the life of being a pro-life physician in a pro-abortion culture. You can watch/listen to the full episode here or read the summary below.

Key Takeaways

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) promotes an abortion ideology far beyond the views of its member OBGYNs, and this sets a tone for the entire medical industry.
Pro-life medical professionals are often nervous about being publicly pro-life, but there’s a lot of room for small steps of quiet advocacy.
Medical professionals who publicly identify as pro-life help the patients seeking doctors who reflect their values and will fight for their prenatal children in difficult pregnancies.

Summary

“ACOG is just off the rails with regard to abortion.”

Dr. Francis discusses how the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has moved way beyond the views of many of its practicing OBGYN members when it comes to abortion. Fewer than 1 in 4 OBGYNs perform elective abortion, yet ACOG opposes all limits on abortion at all stages of pregnancy (see Additional Resources below). ACOG’s radicalization has been a major factor in building a medical industry that silences and marginalizes the many physicians who don’t agree with abortion on demand.

AAPLOG exists as a response to this extremism, building a counterweight to represent the dissenting voices in obstetrics in particular but also medicine more generally. Dr. Francis describes AAPLOG as a place for conscience protection, community, and support – for both pro-life physicians and their patients who reject abortion. AAPLOG is working to shift medical culture and embolden more and more doctors, nurses, medical students, and other professionals to take the ethical stance.

“You do not have to get on X and get in a flame war.”

Dr. Francis and I talked about different ways medical professionals can take a pro-life stance. It doesn’t have to be aggressive or confrontational. Simply saying “I have clinical experience here, and I don’t agree” can be powerful. I emphasized that, in particular, outrage online often looks larger than it really is, and calm, evidence-based pushback can resonate with plenty of people who aren’t comfortable with extreme pro-abortion rhetoric.

When you shoot up that flare gun, yes, a bunch of the people you don’t want to hear from are going to yell at you, but it’s also shooting up that flare gun to the other quiet, private people in your sphere who think they’re the only ones.
Monica Snyder

As SPL emphasizes in our Building Bridges training, often our greatest power and influence is not with the online masses but with the people who know us, in our own professional and personal social circles. There are many opportunities to state simply “I don’t agree” that can have ripple effects.

Another very simple and fairly quiet way for pro-life medical professionals to take a stance: contact AAPLOG about getting added to either their pro-life directory, or their non-public list of contact info they can share with patients who reach out to them.

“We have had so many people talk to us about the way that their medical team treated them when they didn’t want to get an abortion.”

Both Dr. Francis and I emphasized the many patients who actively seek pro-life medical professionals, especially during difficult pregnancies or when they receive adverse prenatal diagnoses. Pro-choice physicians (not all of them, but too many of them) treat abortion as a solution they quickly default to when there are problems, and families are left feeling pressured, dismissed, and even traumatized by glib or sometimes aggressive recommendations that they abort their children.

Even without particular challenges in a given pregnancy, many parents simply want doctors who recognize our embryos and fetuses as much more than preferences – as our valuable prenatal children.

Dr. Francis and I both talked about how crucial it is for these patients that pro-life physicians are public about their perspective. They can provide hope, compassion, and meaningful support to families who otherwise feel isolated by the medical industry.

Interview Chapters

2:35 – What proportion of AAPLOG members are publicly pro-life?
5:50 – Why do some AAPLOG members keep affiliations private?
9:32 – What would AAPLOG say to a pro-life doctor trying to decide whether to publicly list?
11:38 – More doctors unhappy with ACOG
19:09 – What positive effects to doctors see when they list with AAPLOG?
20:17 – Building a pro-life medical community
22:08 – Helping families who receive adverse diagnoses

If you listen to the full episode and have feedback, please tell us here.

Additional Resources

ACOG “Increasing Access to Abortion” Committee Statement: ACOG opposes all abortion regulation, including gestational limits, parental involvement for minors getting abortions, restrictions on taxpayer funding, requirements that specifically doctors provide abortions, and more.
Parents Can Hear You – SPL’s collection of parents commentary about how society in general (and sometimes medical professionals specifically) assume children like ours should have been aborted.
Prenatal Diagnoses series – A more specific SPL collection focused on parents’ experiences, especially with medical professionals, when they get a prenatal diagnosis.
AAPLOG Physician Directory – find pro-life medical professionals in your area

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