The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM) represents over 30,000 physicians and other healthcare professionals who recognize that abortion is not healthcare. It is our duty to protect and preserve the lives of our patients. When we care for a pregnant woman, we affect the wellbeing of two patients – the woman and her unborn child.
Our patients place their trust in us to recommend what is best for them, regardless of current political or cultural trends. When the Hippocratic Oath was first introduced, the intentional killing of human beings was declared incompatible with medical care. The Oath was clear – physicians are healers, not killers. So too is the science of genetics clear – at the moment of fertilization, a new living distinct and whole human being comes into existence. Abortion, an act solely intended to end this new pre-born life, is a clear violation of the Hippocratic Oath.
Moreover, abortion treats no disease and carries a significant risk of harm to women and their future children. For example, abortion increases the risk of women delivering future infants prematurely. Abortion also increases women’s risk of developing breast cancer and mental illness. These risks, and the risks of significant health implications, and even death, from abortion-related complications, are caused by first trimester abortions and increase in likelihood if the abortion is obtained during the second and third trimesters. Women and children deserve better than abortion.
The full statement of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine may be found here.
Dr. Quentin L. Van Meter, who serves on the Board of Directors of the AHM and is President of the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds), encourages readers to review the scientific evidence for this position which is documented in the following ACPeds statements:
Fetal Pain: What is the Scientific Evidence?
Induced Abortion: Risks That May Impact Adolescents, Young Adults, and Their Children
