The American Medical Association has been “neutral” on state abortion law. That has ended.
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The American Medical Association is intervening in the rapid increase of state legal restrictions on abortion for the first time, according to an article published in TIME magazine this morning.

The American Medical Association is suing North Dakota to block two abortion-related laws, the latest signal the doctors’ group is shifting to a more aggressive stance as the Donald Trump administration and state conservatives ratchet up efforts to eliminate legal abortion.


The group, which represents all types of physicians in the U.S., has tended to stay on the sidelines of many controversial social issues, which, until recently, included abortion and contraception. Instead, it has focused on legislation affecting the practice and finances of large swaths of its membership.


But, says AMA President Patrice Harris, the organization feels that, in light of new state laws in the U.S. that would force doctors who perform abortions to lie to patients—put “physicians in a place where we are required by law to commit an ethical violation”—it has no choice but to take a stand. One of these laws, set to take effect Aug. 1, requires physicians in North Dakota to tell patients that medication abortions—a procedure involving two drugs taken at different times—can be reversed. The AMA said that is “a patently false and unproven claim unsupported by scientific evidence.” North Dakota is one of several states to pass such a measure.

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The AMA goes on to say that they are intervening because the state is intervening in the doctor-patient relationship. Is this less about abortion, and more about controlling doctors’ ability to speak freely to patients about risks, benefits, and alternatives? Does this have implications for the AMA’s position on other legal matters such as so-called “gag rules” on abortion? Will be expecting more legal action by the AMA on these matters?

EDIT: in discussion of this blog post on the IJFAB Facebook page, Monica McLemore noted that the AMA has intervened in the past in ways that deeply affect abortion access, including attempting to limit the ability of midwives to provide reproductive health services in independent practice. Phyllis Brodsky’s 2008 “Where have all the midwives gone?” in Journal of Perinatal Education has some more information on the AMA’s role in advocating for state licensure policies that limit midwifery. McLemore notes that this kind of involvement neither makes the AMA historically neutral on abortion, nor was a result of a historical neutrality. For more on midwifery, see the history blog Nursing Clio’s excellent array of articles.

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