Kansas N.O.W. lobbyist Kari Rinker, is fanning opposition (here and here) to the Pro-Life Protections Act, HB 2598, but she is wrong that the bill will cost accreditation for the University of Kansas (KU), and she’s wrong about ob/gyn physician education.
1998 Kansas law already bans abortions at KU—but KU continued abortion training, merely moving it offsite. (read previous post)
One provision of HB 2598 would forbid abortion performance by state entities (and by state student-physicians in training) –language that mirrors what Arizona adopted in 2011 (KSA 76-3308 (i)) KU has not issued a public demand to keep abortion training, other than emails to legislators from its lobbyist,
incorrectly threatening that a lack of abortion participation would cause KU to lose accreditation by ACGME (American Council on Graduate Medical Education).
However, ACGME—by its own rules– exempts not only individuals from performing abortions for religious /moral objections to performing abortions, but also exempts education programs that are under “legal” restrictions (see article IV. A. 2 d, on pg. 13 here). That is why Arizona retains its accreditation while banning abortion training.
Authentic training required for ob/gyn physicians includes pregnancy management, evacuation of the womb and “learning about abortion procedures without doing them,” as bill-author Rep. Lance Kinzer (R-Olathe) correctly told the House Federal-State Affairs Committee. KFL medical advisors completely back this position — that you don’t have to participate in killing an unborn child in the womb to learn how to help remove a stillbirth or repair botched abortions.
Rinker complains that to “eliminate abortion as part of training for prospective physicians… obviously puts women’s lives at risk,” comparing it to producing brain surgeons who lack training in brain surgery.
However, the comparison fails, as HB 2598 doesn’t prevent practitioners from joining abortion businesses and learning the grizzly trade there. It just ends a state imprimatur on abortion as legitimate medicine,
reinforced by requiring a med student to destroy unborn children as a “prerequisite” to attaining a medical license.
The feds overcalled mandatory abortion performance in medical programs with the Coats amendment in 1996. Kansas can produce the finest ob/gyns without mandating abortion training and without losing accreditation.
Better late than never for Kansas to act on that protection– as Arizona already has done.
CITIZEN ACTION: Contact your state representative (here) and Gov. Brownback (phone 785-296-3232 or email) about this situation. Urge them to follow Arizona’s example and stop abortion training by KU!
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