Act Now to Stop Congress From Interfering In Private Medical Decisions!
Just weeks ago, voters across the country rejected extremism and elected candidates supportive of reproductive freedom. But as anti-choice politicians in Congress prepare to adjourn for the year, they are attempting to interfere with private health care decisions by requiring doctors to provide women seeking an abortion with misleading information.
Anti-choice advocates are going to bring H.R. 6099, the “Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act” to a vote on Wednesday, December 6. This ill-advised bill would inappropriately interfere with the way doctors provide care to women, advance political agendas over sound science, and would punish doctors for providing responsible patient care.
Women seeking a legal abortion after 20 weeks would be forced to read and sign a statement saying that "there is substantial evidence the process of being killed in an abortion will cause the unborn child pain." Available scientific evidence fails to support the conclusions drawn by this legislation and its required statement.
Doctors already share relevant information about health care options and respect the decisions made by their patients. This legislation intrudes upon the doctor-patient relationship by requiring doctors to provide information that they may not believe is appropriate or accurate for an individual patient. Responsible medicine requires that patients and doctors be able to make treatment decisions together based on each patient’s unique circumstances.
Requiring doctors to share misleading mandated communication with their patients, is a dangerous insertion of Congress into private health care decisions. We urge you to contact your Representative to oppose this legislation so that doctors and patients, not politicians, can continue to determine what constitutes medically appropriate care.
>Read NAF's position statement opposing this legislation
>View NAF's press release
Labels: anti-choice, federal legislation
