Imagine yourself, a senior in college, sitting in the middle of your dream medical-school interview. Because you have done your homework, the interview is going exceedingly well. You seem to have established a rapport with the interviewer, and your answers are crisp, clear and intelligent. It’s going so well that you are starting to feel confident regarding your chances of gaining admission.
That is, until the interviewer hits you with this question: “Suppose a young pregnant woman and her boyfriend come to you seeking an abortion. What would you do?”
What would you do? How would you answer? For pro-life medical-school candidates, there is only one answer: You counsel the couple not to have an abortion. The problem is that, in some cases, this answer could ruin the candidate’s chance of admission.
It is routine for medical-school admission interviews to include open-ended questions on ethical issues. Primarily, these questions are included in the process to see if students can articulate clearly and defend adequately their thoughts on complex issues. If this were the sole reason for their inclusion, questions about abortion and abortion access could play a legitimate role in the interview process. But that is often not the intent of such questions.
The reality is that many schools are using abortion-related questions to screen out pro-life candidates. This is despite the fact that federal law prohibits medical schools that receive federal funding from discriminating against candidates based upon their views on abortion. While the law prohibits explicit discrimination against pro-life candidates, it does not prohibit schools from inquiring about abortion during the interviewing process. Unfortunately, this situation creates a loophole big enough to drive a truck through.
While no systematic study has been done — largely because many medical schools would be unwilling to take part — anecdotal evidence compiled over the last three decades by groups such as the Catholic Medical Association indicate that abortion-related questions are being used as a covert litmus test for admissions at some schools. For example, when it becomes apparent from an applicant’s answer that he is pro-life, interviewers can find other reasons to deny the candidate admission rather than explicitly stating that he should not be admitted because he is pro-life.
Pro-life candidates can be labeled as “naive” or “rigid” in their thinking. They can be written off as “overly religious” or “intolerant” and not likely to play nice with others. This is enough to sink an applicant’s chances of admission. As a result, the school can claim that they did not deny the candidate admission because he or she was ostensibly pro-life, but rather because of some derogatory label that is foisted upon any pro-life candidate.
Ongoing Bias
The result of this screening is having its effect. A 2007 survey of medical students found that 40% of students identified themselves as liberals, while only 26% identified themselves as conservatives. Not surprisingly, this percentage of liberals in medical school is considerably higher than the numbers of self-identified liberals in the general U.S. population. Only 30% of 18- to 24-year-olds identify themselves as liberal, while only 23% of 25- to 38-year-olds do. Clearly, a higher percentage of liberals are making their way into medical school, and it is hard to believe that the screening out of pro-life candidates, most of whom describe themselves as conservative, is not contributing to this discrepancy.
What makes matters even more troubling is that the bias against pro-lifers doesn’t stop in the admissions process, but continues throughout medical-school training and beyond. Pro-life students are routinely denied OB-GYN residencies if they are unwilling to perform abortions. Those who do get residencies are often harassed or punished with poor letters of recommendation as a result of their pro-life stance. Likewise, family-practice residents have encountered similar situations in which they are marginalized for not assisting in abortions.
Even when they make it into practice, there is still discrimination against pro-life doctors. Pro-life doctors have been denied E.R. privileges for refusing to administer abortifacient drugs. They have been forced out of jobs for counseling patients to remain abstinent until marriage or for refusing to refer patients for abortions. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has stated that pro-life ob-gyns must “practice in proximity to individuals who do not share their views or ensure that referral processes are in place [for abortions].” If they fail to do so, the threat of board decertification looms.
Given the climate of discrimination, particularly in the OB-GYN field, it is essential that strong conscience-protection laws are put in place and that these laws are vigorously enforced. Unfortunately, the U.S. is moving in the wrong direction, as the Obama administration’s dilution of conscience regulations earlier this year demonstrates. Among other problems, the watered-down regulations do not protect doctors or pharmacists who morally object to prescribing or dispensing contraceptives, and they do not protect doctors who refuse to refer patients who request abortions. While it seems to protect doctors who morally object to performing abortions, it is unclear if the regulations will be enforced vigorously by a Department of Justice that is run by appointees of a pro-abortion president.
The Need to Speak Out
This situation makes it imperative that the pro-life community speaks out to Congress and encourages the passing of strongly worded conscience-protection laws for health-care workers. It is also important that Catholic medical schools lead the way in this regard by 1) advocating for stronger conscience protections, 2) informing their medical students regarding the conscience protections that exist currently, and 3) facilitating the education of the wider medical profession in this regard.
If this underhanded discrimination of pro-life medical-school applicants and doctors continues to go unchecked and the conscience-protection laws continue to be assaulted, the numbers of committed pro-life doctors will certainly decline. The resultant lack of strong pro-life voices in the medical profession will affect both the type of medical care that is available to patients and the procedures (abortion, contraception, euthanasia) that are promoted as viable and necessary.
It is time for Catholics, both as individuals and as institutions, to assist our pro-life physicians and medical students in their effort to provide truly life-affirming care. If we do not, the practice of medicine will be altered fundamentally in the coming years, and not for the better.
Daniel Kuebler, Ph.D, is a professor of biology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.
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Just lie to the interviewer and say your pro-choice. It doesn’t matter what they think, once you get your medical degree you can do whatever you want and they have no power over you. That’s on an individual basis, on a societal basis that kind of discrimination needs to be stopped. Actually reversed, pro-abortion students needs to be screened b/c they are directly killing a human which is a violation of the hippocratic oath.
I am against rape, I would not rape someone, but I support the choice of others to rape. I am against theft, I would not steal, but I support the choice of others to steal. I am against murder, I would not murder anyone but I support the choice of those who do murder. I am against discrimination, I would not discriminate, but I support others choice to discriminate….does that pretty much sum up how ridiculous the statements made by pro-choice/abortion folks sound like? It sounds really different when the actions involved are human…just like the child in the womb is human. The difference is, the abortion lobby does everything in it’s power to call that unborn child anything BUT human. SInce that is the case, doctors, whose Hippocratic Oath includes the words “I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy” have a duty to ALL parties involved. They are not in the business to follow the advice of the patients, but give advice to the patients. They will guard their life and art. What you see in medical schools is a violation of the Hippocratic Oath. Why? They redefined it to take out the “sticky” parts that were politically inconvenient. Let’s get real…seperate thos who follow the Hippocratic Oath and those who don’t. If someone wants to be an abortioninst, he can’t be a doctor, at least not in the tradition of Hippocrates.
Are there any Catholic medical schools in the United States? (And I mean more than just Catholic in name only.) If not, would it be feasible and worthwhile for a Catholic university such as Franciscan University or Ave Maria University or CUA to start a medical school—one that would adhere to Catholic medical practices, such as not prescribing contraceptives, not performing abortions, not performing sterilizations, etc.? A residency program could be established in conjunction with a local Catholic hospital, where these types of immoral procedures hopefully are already prohibited.
Paul H., you took the question right out of my mouth.
I am a physician, and have been for 29 years now. The pressure from the anti-life bigots is intense.
These issues, along with the pressure being placed on Catholic organizations to knuckle under to the gay-rights lobby on so-called “gay marriage”, as well as being forced to provide contraception & sterilization coverage in health plans—these are matters of religious liberty. Our liberty is now in ever-more danger.
I am a Baby Boomer. In the medical profession, I’ll tell you it was next-to-impossible to find any women to date who were faithful to the Church’s Magisterium on matters of contraception, cohabitation, abortion, etc. Eventually, with prayers, I found my wife—a school teacher, now the mother of our four children (as well as of four unborn babies who were miscarried and whom we hope to meet someday).
I mention a snippet of my own story to ask a very deeply poignant question, at least for me: where were our Bishops and priests these last 43 years, since Humanae Vitae? I admit that at one point I left the Church out of exasperation when I met with a pastor in Ladue, Missouri, who told me in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t going to help me find a spouse who is faithful to the Magisterium on Humanae Vitae.
Where were the pastors and Bishops on Humanae Vitae these many years? Indeed, where ARE they now? I ask because Humanae Vitae itself prophecies abortion as a result of the contraceptive mentality. These issues are intimately linked to each other in terms of the core attitude of creature to Creator.
Furthermore, in the wake of Roe v. Wade, why weren’t our pastors and BIshops at the front of civil disobedience actions? Surely, civil disobedience in the cause of civil rights for African Americans meets with endless “huzzahs!!” from our pastors and Bishops. Marching with the downtrodden African Americans was, in fact, the right thing. The annual March for Life seems more like a bottom-up event, to me by comparison.
Instead, we get 180 silent Bishops when Notre Dame honors one of the greatest baby-killers of all time with an honorary degree—yes, 80 Bishops condemned Fr. Jenkins’s awarding of a degree to Obama; so, where were the OTHER 180 Bishops in America? Why the silence? How many Bishops voted for this baby-killer?
And, so, here we are in 2011, with a radical President whom many Bishops secretly voted for, who leads the effort to suffocate religion down to a vestigial talisman that one may display only in the privacy of the home.
We have gone from freedom of religion and no establishment of religion, to “separation” of Church and State, to a “wall” between Church and State, to increasingly dictatorial and restrictive constraints on any expression of religion at work, to OUTRIGHT PERSECUTION of faithful adherents to Catholicism.
It is time for the Bishops themselves to REPENT of their support for the very policies and procedures and people who brought us to this juncture. By NO means have I any confidence that EVEN NOW will there be more than milque-toast public pronouncements “condemning” the freedom of religion—and at that, it will be only a minority of our trendy-lefty Bishops who say anything at all.
We Catholics are the “frogs.” Does anyone notice that the water we’ve been marinating in these last 50 years has gradually gotten hotter and hotter, and is now at full boil? Or is this really the outcome that so many people, both in the Church and without, REALLY want?
Pro-Life candidates for medical school should only apply at pro-life schools, work at pro-life facilities and if they open their own office include their pro-life stance in their advertisements. That would certainly attract pro-life patients. What is happening is not right but the best way to change it is to become a member of the medical field and bring about the change from within. I do not advocate lying about your beliefs because the other side wins when you hide. Honesty is the best policy. Stand up for what you believe in and pave the way for those who will come up in the ranks behind you. Someone has to start the process.
Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, Neb.
Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C.
Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, Chicago
Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis
are the only four I could find listed, along with Marian University in Indiana which is just starting up a medical school.
I am in complete agreement with Paul H. and Wsquared; we need a real Catholic medical school in the United States. I am a pre-medical student in my last year of undergrad, preparing to take my MCAT and apply this coming Summer, and I honestly don’t know how I’m going to make it through the interview process as a committed, pro-life Catholic. Nearly all of my friends who have already faced interviews said that sexual morality questions came up in some form (abortion, contraception, homosexuality, etc.). I can’t think of an action that would go further to promote the pro-life message in our culture than the Church creating a visible and loyal Catholic medical school.
I am a medical student at a large state school. I am 100% pro-life and strive to be faithful to the teaching authority of the Church. This is getting very difficult to do, not only as a practicing physician, but also as a medical student. Luckily, I was never asked about my views on abortion during my interview. If I was asked, there is no way I could say I was pro-choice just to impress them. I have to say I disagree with CL. Lie about your views on abortion? Can you imagine what Christ would say to that? Following Christ is hard, he even warned us that we will be persecuted. If he was rejected, we will also be rejected, but we must continue to stand up for Him and the teachings of His church.
It has been my experience, as well as other students, that students are not forced to take part in abortions during their OB rotations. In fact, at least where I am from, most students do not. I see the biggest obstacle in the unwillingness to consult or refer on contraceptions. Generally (there are exceptions), people can at least understand why you do not want to partake in an abortion. However, 99.8% physicians have no problem prescribing contraceptives. In fact, those who don’t are deemed unethical. I would even go as far as saying the majority or residents or attendings have come across very few (if any) students who refuse to consult on contraceptives.
There are Catholic Medical schools (5 I believe). How faithful they are to the Church, I don’t know. It is extremely difficult to just start a medical school. I would love to see a faithful Catholic school get started, however with the new regulations coming from the Obama administration, even a faithful Catholic school will find it extremely difficult to adhere to Catholic teaching. It’s scary times, but as we go forward we must put our trust in Christ, and use His strength to fight this battle. And we need more Catholic physicians, who are faithful to the Church to join the fight as well.
I am a medical student at a large state school. I am 100% pro-life and strive to be faithful to the teaching authority of the Church. This is getting very difficult to do, not only as a practicing physician, but also as a medical student. Luckily, I was never asked about my views on abortion during my interview. If I was asked, there is no way I could say I was pro-choice just to impress them. I have to say I disagree with CL. Lie about your views on abortion? Can you imagine what Christ would say to that? Following Christ is hard, he even warned us that we will be persecuted. If he was rejected, we will also be rejected, but we must continue to stand up for Him and the teachings of His church. It has been my experience, as well as other students, that students are not forced to take part in abortions during their OB rotations. In fact, at least where I am from, most students do not. I see the biggest obstacle in the unwillingness to consult or refer on contraceptions. Generally (there are exceptions), people can at least understand why you do not want to partake in an abortion. However, 99.8% physicians have no problem prescribing contraceptives. In fact, those who don’t are deemed unethical. I would even go as far as saying the majority or residents or attendings have come across very few (if any) students who refuse to consult on contraceptives. There are Catholic Medical schools (5 I believe). How faithful they are to the Church, I don’t know. It is extremely difficult to just start a medical school. I would love to see a faithful Catholic school get started, however with the new regulations coming from the Obama administration, even a faithful Catholic school will find it extremely difficult to adhere to Catholic teaching. It’s scary times, but as we go forward we must put our trust in Christ, and use His strength to fight this battle. And we need more Catholic physicians, who are faithful to the Church to join the fight as well.
The key thing for people to understand is that the keen Catholic doctor (nurse, pharmacist, etc.) opposes them not just on religious grounds, but on the grounds that such “remedies” for non-ailments are not even good medicine—they do not help people, and may actually harm them. Students with those sort of scruples in regard to the patient’s true best interest are drawn to the helping and healing professions and are exactly the sort we want in them, not the ones we should want to kick out!
I’m currently in medical school and during my interview process I was asked about performing abortions and then subsequently asked about prescribing birth control. Fortunately I had already been accepted to another medical school or else I would have freaked out (more than I did.) Instead I answered according to my belief system and didn’t back down when they pushed the subject. I was accepted to that school anyways. I truly believe it was more of a test to see if I was confident enough to stand up to them as I would later have to do in my career. Regardless the school didn’t make a great impression on me after that and I was blessed enough to have multiple other acceptances. I guess what I’m getting at is that while it was asked and it made for an uncomfortable situation I wasn’t denied acceptance to their school based solely on being pro-life or Catholic. Now if you want to talk about being made to feel like I would be an inadequate physician, that’s a whole different story. :)
All Medical Schools in this Country receive substantial Government tax Dollars. This is not necessarily a bad thing. However in the last decade the overwhelming majority of these Schools now also MANDATE that ALL medical students MUST take a REQUIRED course on how to perform Abortions as well in order to graduate. This is clearly a massive hidden subsidy; a kind of welfare payment to Planned Parenthood and other Abortion providers. Every Bishop should make this ugly subsidy known via the Pulpit before each and every Election in each and every Diocese in the Country and call on the Faithful to contact their Senators and Congressman whatever their Party affiliation and ask them to support a law withdrawing ALL forms of Financial Support from those Medical Schools who require this barbarous “Graduation Requirement”.
A prominent Catholic priest on the internet, in advice to seminarians said: “Your job as a seminarian is to get ordained. After you are ordained, and this is important, and get your own parish, then you can talk about the Latin Mass, Communion on the tongue, etc.
I think this is terrible. I have never been to a doctor who didn’t give me their personal opinion either based on statistics or their religious belief. We need pro-life doctors! I do have to disagree that liberal doesn’t always equal pro-choice and conservative doesn’t always equal pro-life, this is not a good comparison to prove your point.
I think there are a handful of Catholic medical schools (Loyola is the only one I can think of) and I think there are some Christian medical schools that are against abortions, embryonic cell research, etc. One of my friends was researching this years ago and found a lot of information, I just can’t remember it all.
Or, how about the argument that a fetus “occupies the status of a potential life”? This was said to me in a debate I had with by a Jewish woman who did not want to be put in the “box” as either pro-life or pro-choice. So, she utilized this “potential life” argument, meaning that a fetus is not one or the other: a life or not a life. She said that this is the “classical Jewish interpretation,” to which I told her that the “classical Jewish interpretation” was wrong because a fetus either is a life or it isn’t a life: There is NO GREY area!!! I even told her that her own Old Testament scriptures did not support her “classical Jewish interpretation”.
Nothing new under the American sun…same blow to the same Constitutional pillar: freedom of speech. Abortion practice mandatory, which means that it is not the case graduate and then abide by your prolife beliefs in the profession. To add to what Veritas brought to light we can probably add that hospitals are under pressure to make abortion providing mandatory. Also for Catholic ones. How exactly I cannot tell as I am neither American nor work in the medical field, but I suppose must pass through the threats of cutting federal funds and employment decisional criteria. Now that you graduated and you know how to perform an abortion, would you do that when required by our hospital? rethorical question as very likely hospitals will be allowed to proceed legally against those members of staff who refuse (to take a human life and deprive of that extra federal funding that now goes mainly if not only to the PP business).Unless a voice is raised NOW by potential medical staff.
Wow, this is scary! I wonder how many potential medical students with pro-life views have had to reconsider another field. Or current practicing medical professionals leave (or retire early) because of this too.
I was an agnostic in med. sch. & residency. After my conversion experience I became faculty @ Med. College of Ga. (now Georgia Health Sciences U.) As med. dir. for a community health ctr. & Family Med. ctr. I had few problems being NFP only & pro life. Many of the faculty, residents, & students were pro life. I also taught ethics and told students if they were being given a hard time to come talk to me. Rarely a problem. As to bias it would be more accurate to look at % conservative vs. liberal in the population graduating from college, not the general population. We constantly hear about the liberal bias of colleges and the “brainwashing” that occurs there. If the bias is not present in interviews the trend is definitely in the direction the author presents.
Sooner or later we all face a day of judgement…that includes all doctors, the Supreme Court and yes, the AMA too!! Remember to say your night prayers, because no one outsmarts God! Life is short! Pray hard!!
I am a pro-life physician. I interviewed in 1989. Even then, I was worried about not getting in because I knew I would not respond favorably (in their eyes) if I was asked that question. Fortunately, I was not asked.
I WAS however, sharply punished for refusing to participate in an abortion during my 3rd year OB-GYN rotation. (Cunningly, nothing was said at the time, but later, events were contrived for me to “get mine.”) I took what they dished out and kept my mouth shut. God’s hand was protecting me though, and their so-called “victory” turned sour in their mouth in a special way when I graduated.
I have also been asked to quit an ER for refusing to prescribe a “morning after” pill. You get over it. There are many ER’s. You get used to moving on after a while.
I have given my testimony as to the details of the punishment and the victory, as well as other Pro-Life testimony, in Pro-Life speaking engagements in person and on TV. I speak messages of love and forgiveness to those who need healing after an abortion is complete. I speak on the benefits of abstinence.(It works EVERYWHERE it is used!) I am “out” as a Pro-Life physician. I have a Pro-Life symbol in my corporate logo, and I have Alabama’s Pro-Life license plates on THREE vehicles.
Now, partly to get around the current administration’s repeal on conscience protection, I have started my own medical practice. It is a bad economy to start a new ANYTHING in, but if I can’t make it as a Pro-Life physician here, I will immigrate to a country where abortion is illegal and practice medicine elsewhere.
I will dig crap out of ditches for a living before I participate—even obliquely—in even ONE abortion, and there is NOTHING that ANYONE on the Left can do to get me to do otherwise.
Pro-choicers: Without apology, I DEFY YOU! I WILL NOT participate in EVEN ONE ABORTION, and there is NOTHING you can do to make me!
Do you know how hard it is to find a doctor, specifically OBGYN, who is pro-life? I know a couple who are traveling over 300 miles to find a pro-life OBGYN! Even midwives, who might be pro-life, are connected to a doctor who is not. I don’t think doctors even take the Hippocratic Oath any more.
Going beyond the interview, the student will still survive with faith. Even through with the abortion in case…life has begun and there is no stopping life. If God has willed it ....the force of life never ends even with death. All will be resurrected on the last day. Whether one has lived a full life..or just a mere second…in the womb. No one can play God. Life is force of nature that God instituted…and no one can alter that even with cutting it out before full growth and maturity within the womb. Life goes on…...Amen.
I’m not a doctor, but a patient.
When I was pregnant, I remember very clearly how the doctor did not give me a chance to explain - they had to test the ‘fetus’ for all kinds of abnormalities.
Even when I told him I was pro-life, he dismissively said “you’d be surprised how many people like you change their minds, when they see how much their baby would suffer if they allowed him to come into this world with an abnormality”.
It just seemed to me that, had my baby been diagnosed with some disorder, I’d be made feel like a bad person for choosing to have him.
At that point, I realized how fragile, how unsafe the babies in the mother’s wombs really are.
Dear Lord, may there be a way to provide more pro-life doctors in this culture of death.
Thank you Dr. Kuebler for an excellent article and the very important conclusion you make at the end. As a pro-life family physician and faculty member at Georgetown University, I have personally witnessed the discrimination that occurs against physicians, residents and medical students, in both “Catholic” and non-Catholic institutions. Therefore, we must work together and speak out to protect our religious freedom and the right to practice medicine in accordance with our beliefs. The reality is there are many patients who seek physicians that affirm life at all its stages. Therefore, for them - the old, the young, the unborn, the infirm - we must encourage and support the medical students and help protect the future generation of pro-life physicians as they make their way across the battlefield, as they will certainly be attacked for their beliefs.
Please, speak out, speak the truth, support one another and BE NOT AFRAID
You should answer that question with dignity and promptly & professionally declare “I prefer not to answer this question as I may offend someone”.
Susi, you mention that it is hard to find pro-life OBGYN’s. You need to know about and help spread the word that at One More Soul’s website onemoresoul.com, there is just such a list of nfp only doctors and instructors organized by state. Just look under Medical Resources and then click on the NFP-Only Doctor Directory
Susi, you mention that it is hard to find pro-life OBGYN’s. You need to know about and help spread the word that at One More Soul’s website onemoresoul.com, there is just such a list of nfp only doctors and instructors organized by state. Just look under Medical Resources and then click on the NFP-Only Doctor Directory and then enter your zip code and you will see a list of the closest NFP-Only Doctors in your area.
Follow the money. Who controls it, who doles it out, & who are they backed by. Since the US is pro-choice, and it is because of R v W, then all the Federal funds accepted are going to have numerous “caveats”. Sad days for the US.
Maybe you should ask them if they are sorry they were born, and would they be happy if someone had aborted (killed) them?
I too practice medicine & can vouch for the intensity of persecution toward us who refuse to compromise the Faith. I have lost at least one job for refusing to prescribe contraceptives, even though it had nothing to do with my specialty, when a mother of a patient of all things demanded them for her daughter (I am omitting a great deal of the patient’s past history if one can understand)—how horrible is that/ parents forcing their kids to sin. And I’m sure at least one other because it was obvious to colleagues that I am a practicing Catholic (I never did anything to them, but I didn’t hide it either). We all live in fear of being reported to the State Medical Board or Specialty Board and effectively getting the “kiss of death” credentialling wise. One is essentially forced to be a solo practitioner with practice limiting & not accept Federal money in any way in order to reduce their risk. We are surrounded increasingly by politically-correct colleagues for whom anything goes, because it is not Medicines job to care in any way what people do (unless it is using tobacco or “eating wrong” or not the political correct activity du jour); ones who see Faith as contradictory to science (not as Creator & designer of it) and therefore we must be crazy, faulty, or even “quack” practitioners. In Medical Schools, since everyone must rotate through OB/GYN regardless of their eventual specialty or practice mode, “for experience.” Again the pressure is to cave or not be able to graduate. I fully second the concept of TRULY Catholic Medical Schools being established at obedient Universities. I looked at that list that someone posted earlier; not mentioning any names but there are definitely Schools on that list that are C.I.N.O. (Catholic in Name ONLY) from experience. They only way to counter this is to provide the opportunities for those of faith by founding truly faithful and obedient Medical/ Health Professions Schools (plural). PS—This pressure extends through ALL pro-life allied health professionals too; I feel so bad for truly Catholic pharmacists or those considering it (I know students who would have made outstanding ones who rejected even attempting school because they knew the pressure to be able to fight dispensing drugs outlawed by God & remain employed might be impossible). Please pray for us all !!! And work for establishment of havens for us to learn and practice God’s way. St. Michael the Archangel defend us in battle.
Daughter’s “Catholic” Ob/Gyn explained to me that Vatican II allows artificial birth control-a Monsignor told him. I said he’s wrong-read Humanae Vitae (I forgot about the CCC at the time). He said we cannot expect young married couples her age to control themselves and depend upon NFP-when I said it works. After all, the Monsignor said we don’t want 8-10-13 kid families anymore.
His office had contraception (exhibits?) all around. Nuva Ring. Implants. Pills. IUD’s.
When leaving, he said if it weren’t for Catholics, the whole wing of that Doctor Complex would be closed. Isn’t that right, Nurse _____? Who attends St. __________ of ___________ Church?
While I do think most of the people involved in this discrimination worship at the altar of abortion, I have a feeling this isn’t just about the desire for doctors willing to perform them. I would bet that this is as much to do with end of life issues, to be honest. When you consider the low birth rate, eventually there won’t be that many people of childbearing age, but the population is aging rapidly. If you have anti-life ‘doctors’ willing to kill the unborn, you are far less likely to find they respect the life of the old and infirm any more than that of the young and defenseless. A wise woman put a handy term to what we are facing, and anti-life physicians will be more than willing to comply with them—Death Panels. That’s where this is heading, with the government takeover of our health system, and that’s what the progressives in higher education are preparing for. I’d bet on it.
This topic is precisely what was addressed in the National Symposium on Authentic Catholic Procreative Healthcare that One More Soul together with the Catholic Medical Association sponsored in 2009 in Springfield, Illinois, where physicians, pharmacists, nurses, hospital administrators, priests and lay people came together to share experiences of what has worked and what has not worked in their practices as they have sought ways to uphold their Catholic prolife principles in their worklife. In particular one of the talks dealt precisely with advice for prolife students on how to handle the interview process for med schools. The videotape of the conference should be posted at onemoresoul.com soon (by Christmas is the goal) for downloading for free. One More Soul is also going to be adding on their website a list of Doctors, Pharmacists, Nurses and current Med Students who are NFP-Only and who are willing to be contacted by those seeking support and guidance for how to uphold their Catholic principles in their careers.
It is my understanding that the Hippocratic oath is no longer taken by medical students, “to do no harm”, and to not give to woman an abortificient. An oath to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is no longer a requirement in a court of law. Every medical student in medical school that is not Catholic is forced to participate in an abortion and so bloody their hands and soul so that objection to abortion is stifled. This is going on since Roe v. Wade swung the power of the Law of the Land to the eradication of “our (constitutional) posterity”.
The immortal soul of the person who comes into existence at the will of God and two parents has been forbidden in the public life of our mortal nation by our mortal government constituted by our immortal souls with our sovereign personhood endowed by “our Creator”. Persons who repudiate “our Creator” and our endowed unalienable rights do not and cannot constitute our mortal nation because these individuals repudiate their immortal souls.
One More Soul has a listing of OB/GYN and FP Residincy Programs with comments from residency applicants and residents—http://onemoresoul.com/pdfs/ResidencyDB.xls.
We invite additional comments.
Residency programs are increasingly accepting of pro-life and NFP-Only applicants because hospitals and physicians groups recognize that there is a population of patients seeking these physicians, and it’s all about market share and $$$.
Also, the risk of a law suit for discrimination is real—witness the nursing student’s challenge of Vanderbilt University’s policy of not accepting someone unless willing to participate in abortion. She won; the policy has been removed. The law is still on your side; you still have some conscience rights protection.
In Canada it is easy enough to get out of abortion providing rotations in medical school - just tell the main office you want to join the Muslim rotation.
As Catholics we can promote the culture of life by supporting Catholic physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other professionals in the healthcare field. Our faith calls us to bear witness to the truth. Whether we come as patients or offer words of support, we can encourage healthcare professionals to continue their work in the culture of life. Dr. Thomas W. Hilgers, MD, founder of the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction, offers hope to those men and women presently in the medical field or entering it who wish to be a witness to the dignity of all human life. There are joint programs available through the Pope Paul VI Institute and Creighton University School of Medicine to give medical professionals the opportunity to learn more about the Creighton Model FertilityCare System and NaProTechnology, a new science for women’s health. The programs train doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurse midwives, pharmacists, teachers, etc of all specialties. If you are at all involved in healthcare the following site is worth checking out: http://www.drhilgers.com/ There. are great links on the right hand side and additional information about the training programs can be found on the Pope Paul VI website. Some other materials to explore are the books Physicians Healed and Women Healed. In order to practice true medicine, it must first be taught. There is hope for all those with a desire to learn to practice medicine that promotes the culture of life. God Bless all who stand as a witness of Christ!
It baffles me that doctors don’t have the right to refuse to do certain procedures. I just don’t get it. I’ve had many physicians who’ve referred me to other doctors to do certain procedures (not abortion or contraceptive related). I just didn’t know you couldn’t refuse.
Interesting combox thread; but what I found most intriguing was the initial reply by CL, urging perjury of all things. Also intriguing was a glaring lack of something else: getting the people elected to office who, if not entirely anti-abortion, at least promise to vote against any proposed bill that’d deny any individual’s right to exercise his or her right of conscience on key moral issues, be it abortion or the enforcement of the death penalty. (Fill in as many other instances as you see fit folks; I’ve just listed a couple.)
Some of you might be wondering why I’m willing to be so widely inclusive concerning my wish to see elected to legislatives men and women of both sides, so long as they support conscience laws.
It’s this simple: A violation of one person’s right to freely exercise his or her conscience is a violation of everybody’s right. We can’t claim any special privileges for ourselves that we’d only be willing to deny others. That’d be legislative/legal thuggery. If we don’t like having our own rights stripped, we shouldn’t be so eager to play the eye-for-an-eye game in our legislatures and courts, either.
Committing perjury isn’t the answer. It’ll come back to bite the person committing it and that bite more often than not occurs at the worst possible time, (i.e. during a contentious and tight election, or legislative battle.) It’s wrong. CL means well, but perjury’s not the answer.
What is the answer? Millions of prayers and a constant march of legislative and legal victories.
Steven, I can agree with you on not perjuring and to pray, but depending on man to fix our problems is not going to happen. As Christians we know that man will always disappoint, but God remains faithful. Putting your faith in elected officials will end up being a disappointment.
I am a pro-life medical student. I was grilled in my interview, told that “Mother Teresa spent the last 20 yrs of her life feeling foresaken by God, if she had used her time and money toward something useful, like sanitation, instead of more dying, maybe she wouldn’t have had to feel that way,” once they figured out I went to a Catholic university, but had no idea if I was Catholic or not, or even if I liked Mother Teresa [which, by the way, who doesn’t?!? Who, whether religious or not, could criticize her in good conscience?] Anyways, I stayed true to my beliefs, did a lot of smiling and head nodding, and explained my position, my understanding, and my reasoning to get to that position, and I was sure I bombed the interview because they had been so confrontational about it. I don’t know if it was a test, but I got accepted. So I guess it depends on the schools you are applying to. I would say that the student who experiences what they believe to be an inappropriate question, or an unsavory response to their answer of a question, should take up the matter with the school’s administration.
Dr. Snouffer: Believe me, no pro-choicer wants people who believe as you do performing pregnancy terminations. You should not be forced to perform terminations, just as you have no right to insist that others continue involuntary pregnancies. Contraceptives are another matter. They are preventive measures and should pose no problem to any medical practitioner.
Just an fyi, contraceptives are NOT preventative. Often women conceive but the newly formed, genetically unique, human being is not able to implant and is thus aborted. In addition, there is scientific evidence that demonstrates a statistically significant increase in risk for women, who take oral contraceptives or undergo the abortion procedure , to develop cardiovascular abnormalities and many lethal forms of cancer; breast, liver, ovarian… Scientifically speaking, the only healthy, effective, and non invasive preventative measures are NFP and abstinence.
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