By Meg Jalsevac
ROME, October 18, 2006 (LifeSiteNews) – According to an October 17th story in Catholic News Service, obstetricians and medical students intending to specialize in obstetrics are being increasingly pressured to take part in abortion procedures. This pressure, coupled with an excessive litigation threat, is causing a numbers crisis in the obstetrics field.
Dr. Robert Walley, founder of MaterCare International, said that he had no idea how much of an effect legalized abortion would have on practicing obstetricians. Walley initially practiced obstetrics in England under the National Health System but when he refused to perform abortions he was told to either switch specialties or leave. Walley chose to leave and moved to Canada where he worked as a faculty member at a new medical school. He says “They weren’t happy I had a particular view of things, and that pursued me until I retired from clinical practice last year.”
MaterCare International is an organization that, according to their website, is “an association of health professionals dedicated to improving the lives and health of mothers and their unborn children throughout the world…”Â
MaterCare’s hosted its fourth workshop for Catholic obstetricians and gynecologists in Rome earlier this month. The workshop was attended by over 60 specialists from around the globe intent on working towards a societal change that respects the God-given dignity and value of women and unborn children.Â
It is an uphill battle according to Walley who says that obstetricians are being “frozen out by the climatic change that occurred when abortion was brought in 30 years ago.”Â
In a lot of countries, especially in Europe, obstetricians and other members of the medical profession are being denied the right to apply a ‘conscience clause’ in order to refuse to participate in abortion. Walley says, “Every civilized country has always recognized conscientious objection even in the time of war, but not in the time of abortion, and it’s an outrage.”
Walley adds that excessive litigation has also dissuaded doctors from practicing obstetrics or even entering the field initially. People expect perfection and when something is wrong with their child or goes wrong during delivery they immediately want to sue the obstetrician.Â
No matter their views on abortion, Walley asserts that no surgeon or obstetrician wants to spend their entire practice performing abortions. It is depressive. Dr. John Seeds, chair of MaterCare USA and chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA agrees. Seeds’ program does not require residents to participate or study abortion. He says, “There’s not this evil cloud” hanging over the residents that would be there if they were mandated to participate.ÂÂ
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Father George Woodall, a professor of Moral Theology and Bioethics at Rome’s Regina Apostolorum, reinforced the importance of maintaining a ‘conscience clause’ for health care professionals saying that conscience is not just a personal opinion but an “individual’s desire to pay witness to truth.”
Seeds concluded by saying “The pro-life movement of the Church argues from a supportive and loving position, not a destructive, hostile position. We have to love it out of them … it’s the only way to make it work.”Â
Walley says 35 years ago, when he started his practice, obstetrics was regarded as a prestigious profession that assisted in the joyful experience of bringing a new life into the world. Not so any more. Abortion and its accompanying mentalities pose a real threat to the obstetrics field of medicine across the globe.Â