End the Favoritism for the Abortion Industry, Says the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

TUCSON, Ariz., Feb. 04, 2016 -- Patients are protected and the patient-physician relationship is strengthened by requiring abortion providers to comply with ethical and quality standards that are fundamental to the medical profession, states the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS). AAPS filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, No. 15-274, in support of Texas HB 2, which properly requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital before they perform an abortion.

Telling patients after a procedure to “call 911 or go to the nearest Emergency Room” is not quality medical care, and the abortion industry should not be permitted to continue to dump the costly complications of its procedures onto other physicians unaware of what went wrong. “Ethical physicians remain available to assist in complications that result from their procedures, and abortion providers should do no less,” states AAPS Executive Director Jane Orient, M.D.

“There is no constitutional right to a back-alley, less safe abortion,” observes AAPS General Counsel Andrew Schlafly. “The abortion industry has been cutting corners and shifting the expenses of complications onto other physicians and the public, and Texas properly acted to stop the cost-shifting by enacting HB 2.”

Citing the Joint Commission standards, the AAPS amicus brief explains that the admitting privileges requirement in HB 2 ensures that the “physician is better able to communicate with other physicians at the hospital and coordinate patient care.” Moreover, “This closer connection between the physician and the hospital where a patient is admitted reinforces the physicians’ ethical obligation never to abandon care of their patients,” AAPS adds.

Abortion supporters claim that they want abortion to be safe, yet they are attempting to overturn this Texas law that makes abortion safer, AAPS points out, noting that it has members who are called to address complications caused by abortions in patients who did not receive adequate follow-up care by the abortion provider. In 2013, the AAPS President testified in favor of the precursor to HB 2 at a legislative hearing in Austin.

Transfer agreements between abortion clinics and hospitals do not ensure continuity of care, and do not protect the patient-physician relationship. Texas HB 2 properly compels the abortion industry to make their physicians available at a nearby hospital for follow-up care, just as physicians in other specialties generally are.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in all specialties, founded in 1943 to preserve private medicine and the patient-physician relationship.

Contact: Jane M. Orient, M.D., (520) 323-3110, [email protected], or Andrew Schlafly, Esq., (908) 719-8608, [email protected]