In the run-up to the expected Supreme Court decision for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the American Medical Association (AMA) has officially labeled all abortion bans as a “violation of human rights” and stated that it would look for “expanded legal protections” for all abortion patients and their providers.
The association has officially adopted a new policy resolution that states that abortion bans set down by state governments are a “violation of human rights.” As stated in a press release sent out on Tuesday with the new policy, the AMA stated it would be looking to further expand all of its legal protections for abortion patients and all doctors against those bans, even including any patients that are forced to cross state lines in order to go through with abortion procedures.
“Responding to the growing threat of over-policing and surveillance of reproductive health services, the nation’s physicians and medical students at the AMA Annual Meeting adopted policy recognizing that it is a violation of human rights when government intrudes into medicine and impedes access to safe, evidence-based reproductive health services, including abortion and contraception,” the organization stated as part of its recent press release. “In accordance with the new policy, the AMA will seek expanded legal protections for patients and physicians against government systems of control and punishment that criminalize reproductive health services.”
“A growing number of current and pending laws insert government into the patient-physician relationship by dictating limits or bans on reproductive health services and criminally punish or penalize patients for their health decisions,” stated Jack Resneck Jr., the incoming president of the AMA. “The new policy also calls for AMA to seek legal protections for patients who cross state lines to receive reproductive health services, as well as legal protections for physicians and others who support or provide reproductive health services or referrals to patients who cross state lines.”
along with the providing of legal protection to the abortion providers and patients, the AMA stated it would go on to “challenge” civil or criminal penalties targeting other physicians, health systems, health professionals, and patient advocates who assist in or support the providing of abortion referrals or services to various patients, “[in] alignment with the AMA’s longtime opposition to the criminalization of medical practice,” stated the organization.
“The new policy strengthens the AMA’s long-held position opposing political intrusions into the practice of medicine that infringe on the patient-physician relationship and compromise patient access to safe, evidence-based medical care,” it stated in its press release.
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