American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Demands Compulsory Referral for Abortion (30 August, 2005)

Project Letter to the ACOG President

Re: Compulsory referral for abortion

19 September, 2005

Office of the President
Michael T. Mennuti, MD, FACOQ
Department of Ob-Gyn
University of Pennsylvania Medical Center
3400 Spruce Street
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, USA 19104-4283

Dear Dr. Mennuti:

I am writing in response to your letter to American senators dated 30 August, 2005, in which you stated that doctors who morally object to abortion should be required to refer patients to other physicians who will provide the procedure. I note that you did not offer the senators any reasons to support this dogmatic assertion.

The Protection of Conscience Project does not take a position with respect to the morality of abortion or other controversial procedures, so the objective moral or ethical status of abortion or referral for abortion is not here in issue. Instead, I would like to have the benefit of your justification for the demand that physicians who profoundly disagree with your moral assessment of referral for abortion should, nonetheless, be compelled by law to accept and live by your moral convictions rather than their own.

I look forward to hearing from you in the hope that some dialogue on this issue would be mutually beneficial.

Sincerely,

(Sean Murphy)
Administrator