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March 24, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Five organizations representing more than 30,000 pro-life physicians have lamented “the call to continue elective abortion during the COVID-19 pandemic,” characterizing it as “medically irresponsible.” Elective abortions, they said, are “falsely” characterized by various pro-abortion groups as “essential healthcare.”
The doctors represented by the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Pediatricians, Christian Medical & Dental Associations, the Catholic Medical Association, and the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons emphasized that “elective abortion treats no disease process.”
In their March 23 statement, they explained how “across the United States, services that do constitute essential health care for women, including routine Pap smears, mammograms, and pelvic exams, are being postponed in order to reduce everyone’s risk of exposure to COVID-19, and to conserve scarce medical resources.”
Elective abortions are neither “essential” nor “urgent.” To continue with such procedures would “consume critical resources such as masks, gloves, and other personal protective equipment, and unnecessarily exposes patients and physicians to pathogens.”
The pro-life doctors pointed out that elective abortions also lead to more patients in emergency rooms, as most abortionists “instruct women to go to an emergency room if they have any concerning symptoms after the abortion.”
“Approximately 5% of women who undergo medication abortions will require evaluation in an emergency room, most commonly for hemorrhage. Surgical abortions can also result in hemorrhage,” they added.
“Emergency room personnel – who are already struggling to meet the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic – will be further strained to provide care to these women.”
Nonetheless, even with coronavirus spreading quickly in the United States (400 deaths as of March 23), pro-abortion groups claimed abortions are “an essential component of comprehensive health care.”
On March 18, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology, and other organizations, including the Society of Family Planning, said abortions are “a time-sensitive service for which a delay of several weeks, or in some cases days, may increase the risks or potentially make it completely inaccessible.”
“The consequences of being unable to obtain an abortion profoundly impact a person’s life, health, and well-being,” they argued.
Many of the same organizations said the pandemic “is a public health crisis that requires the full attention and resources of our health care systems” and have called on hospitals to suspend elective surgeries.”
Pro-life group Created Equal provided arguments similar to those of the pro-life physicians. Abortion facilities consume not only “scarce personal protective equipment, they risk spreading COVID-19 throughout your state.”
“Furthermore, abortionists themselves are not immune to COVID-19 and some, including one in Michigan, may have already contracted the disease. These facilities also put a burden on community EMTs and hospital ERs, should they have a medical emergency at one of their locations.”
Mark Harrington, president of Created Equal, said that if “abortion is a ‘choice’ then abortion is an elective procedure.”
“However, abortionists want to have it both ways. In a clear double standard, abortion centers across the nation are staying open during this national health crisis, risking public health and safety,” he went on.
In Massachusetts, the government wants abortions to continue as usual.
“Terminating a pregnancy is not considered a nonessential, elective invasive procedure for the purpose of this guidance. However, the ultimate decision is based on clinical judgment by the caring physician,” a memorandum of the Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality in Massachusetts stated, according to MassLive.com.
“Health care providers are being diverted to help address the epidemic while also being most at risk of acquiring the disease. This may create a shortage of clinicians who can provide sexual and reproductive health services and increase wait times for patients in need,” the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute worried on March 11.