AAPS: Kagan Creates Her Own Science on Abortion
TUCSON, Ariz., July 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In her confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court justice, Elena Kagan stated that women's rights and health need to be protected. By that, she apparently means their unrestricted right to abortion until their baby has completely emerged from the womb.
While a Clinton White House appointee, Kagan authored the statement on partial birth abortion (intact D&X) that was the biggest hurdle to the ban on this barbarous procedure, according to former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Shannen W. Coffin. It claimed that intact D&X might sometimes be the best means to preserve the life or health of a woman.
Her statement was copied verbatim by the executive committee of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), and presented as the studied opinion of impartial experts, rather than the political strategy of pro-abortion extremists. It was then repeated in judicial opinions as though it were a medical fact.
In reality, as the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) pointed out in an amicus brief (http://www.aapsonline.org/judicial/pbabrief.htm), "the ACOG's panel of experts could not identify a single circumstance where D&X is medically superior." Medical experts have indeed failed to identify any circumstance in which intact D&X abortion "represents the standard of care, or would be medically necessary to protect the life or health of women."
In addition to ethical issues, such as blurring the difference between abortion and infanticide, partial birth abortions pose significant maternal health risks, including rupture of the uterus.
Does a history of distorting medical opinion to support a political agenda disqualify a person for serving as a U.S. Supreme Court justice?
Physicians have another question: Does willingness to substitute the scribbling of a political appointee for scientific deliberation disqualify ACOG officials from speaking for physicians?
"This shocking revelation brings shame upon both Kagan and ACOG," stated AAPS Executive Director Jane Orient, M.D.
SOURCE Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)
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