NYC Program To Force Doctors’ Abortion Training Draws More Criticism



New York, NY — Pro-abortion New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's (R) plan to force all OB/GYN residents at public hospitals to undergo abortion training has drawn praise from abortion advocates, who say the program will help alleviate the “shortage” of those who can perform abortions, but it has garnered criticism from pro-life advocates, who state that the program is “trying to force abortion into the medical mainstream” and violates doctor's consciences.

Beginning in July, approximately 150 OB/GYN residents in the city's 11 public hospitals will be required to undergo abortion training, including lessons about the administration of mifepristone (RU 486) for chemical abortion, as part of their standard medical training.

Pro-life advocates say that if other residency programs follow New York City's lead, the proliferation of such training programs could have “devastating” consequences.

Olivia Gans of the National Right to Life Committee said that Bloomberg's program is attempting to “shove child-killing down our throats.” She noted that the program allows residents to “opt out” of abortion training for moral or religious reasons, but she stated that such an option “put[s] the onus on a young doctor to be brave enough to stand out from the pack.”

About 15% of the city's OB/GYN residents may choose to abstain from the training for “reasons of conscience,” Dr. Allan Rosenfield, dean of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, estimated.

Gans predicted that most medical residents will not choose to provide abortion services in their practices, even if they receive training, because technical advances such as ultrasound are “convincing medical students that fetuses are indeed living beings that should not be aborted.”

“The knowledge available now has made young doctors reluctant to go into abortion, because that would mean ending one of their two patients' lives,” Gans said.

Abortion advocates back the program to expand the pool of abortion practitioners.

More than half of the country's 2,000 abortion practitioners are over the age of 50, and many are contemplating retirement. Because one-seventh of the nation's medical residents are trained in New York City and the region's medical education practices often serve as a model for other areas, abortion advocates are hoping to see a ripple effect as other hospital systems emulate the city and New York-trained doctors move to other states.

Christina Paige of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League of New York said that if the New York City program is successful, it will “make other programs question how they're delivering this care.”

See the Associated Press for similar articles.

(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)

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