By Hilary White
April 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An international group of obstetricians and gynaecologists has formally protested plans by the US government to rescind legislation protecting the rights of conscience of doctors to refuse to participate in abortions.
Dr. Robert Walley, head of MaterCare International, has warned that the practice of obstetrics in the US “will suffer” should the plans go ahead. The proposal, he writes, “is an attack on an inalienable right” and will usher in a “form of totalitarianism” that amounts to “discrimination and persecution.”
In an open letter, Dr. Walley wrote, “By interfering in the freedom to practise according to conscience, the principles of autonomy of the physician and the rights of mothers will be removed.”
“The practice of obstetrics in the United States will suffer as there will be a sameness of practice which will stifle further thought and progress in maternal health care.”
Dr. Walley, an obstetrician with over 35 years experience in the field, denounced the abortion ideology that he said is working against the traditions of freedom of conscience at the expense of women. “The so called freedom to choose that one group of women has supposedly gained through the introduction of abortion will now be lost by all women as a consequence of their inability to consult an obstetrician whose practice is based on respect for life and on hope from its very beginning.”
“It will be bought at the expense of a once noble profession.”
With representatives in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland, MaterCare International is one of the few completely pro-life medical associations in the world, that offers pre- and post-natal care to mothers in developing countries.
In February, President Barack Obama indicated that his government is poised to rescind legal protections for health care workers who object to procedures, such as abortion and sterilisations, that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs. The conscience protections were one of the last acts of the Bush administration and they came into effect on January 20 of this year, the same day as President Obama’s inauguration. The Bush rule was universally condemned by the abortion lobby.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Obama to Revoke Bush Abortion Rule Protecting Conscience Rights
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09022712.html