Campaign Action
Huge news from the American Medical Association (AMA) on the reproductive health front, specifically (and almost without precedent) regarding abortion. This is a big change from how the AMA typically operates; the organization represents all kinds of physicians in the United States and tends to stay mum on issues deemed controversial.
But as reported by Time, that’s changing. The AMA is suing North Dakota in an attempt to block two laws related to restricting abortion. Before we get into the specifics, remember: North Dakota has exactly one abortion clinic left.
In the age of Trump (though it’s always an uphill battle for reproductive health), laws restricting or basically banning abortion feel endless. In particular, one of these laws (H.B. 1336), which as of now will take effect August 1, will require North Dakota physicians to lie to patients. In this case, the law instructs physicians to tell patients who are seeking abortions that medication abortions can be reversed.
Medication abortions involve taking two drugs, one after the other. According to the AMA (and science in general), the claim that this can be reversed is “a patently false and unproven claim unsupported by scientific evidence.”
In a joint filing with the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), the AMA is arguing that this violates the First Amendment rights of physicians because it, essentially, makes them communicate false information, in addition to statements they disagree with which aren’t even medical.
"The AMA will always defend science and open conversations about all health care options available to patients,” AMA President Patrice A. Harris said in a statement.
In addition, the AMA is challenging a law that already exists in North Dakota. In this case, the law requires physicians to tell pregnant people that abortion ends “the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.” In its statement, the AMA says this stipulation of the law “unconstitutionally forces physicians to act as the mouthpiece of the state.”
The complaint adds that this “is unmoored from the scientific facts relevant to the patient's need to consent to abortion, and which shames and stigmatizes the patients' decision to seek an abortion.”
Bizarrely, North Dakota isn’t the only state that has this weird, false information built into law. Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Utah have all passed similar laws which require physicians to explain abortion “reversal” to patients. Five out of eight of these states have passed the legislation in the past year.