Statement attributable to:
Ryan D. Mire, MD, FACP
President, ACP
WASHINGTON July 8, 2022 – The American College of Physicians (ACP) welcomes the Executive Order on Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Services that President Biden issued today, but we assert the order does not do enough to restore rights to the millions of Americans who have lost federal protections due to the recent Supreme Court decision. We are glad to see that the order seeks to expand access to abortion services, including medication abortion, as well as to other reproductive health services. We are also appreciative that it affirms the right to emergency care for those who are pregnant or experiencing pregnancy loss. Additionally, we appreciate that the administration understands the importance of protecting our patients’ private, digital health information.
ACP is extremely dismayed by the threat to health care in our country that is posed by the recent Supreme Court decision. We firmly support patient autonomy and ensuring access for all patients to the full range of reproductive health care services, including abortion. ACP believes that such reproductive health care decisions are foundational to the patient-physician relationship. A patient’s decision about whether to continue a pregnancy should be a private decision made in consultation with a physician or other health care professional, without interference from the government. All of these harms are why ACP and other health care organizations are so firmly opposed to the overturning of Roe.
We hope that working together with other stakeholders, we can find a way to restore access to reproductive services, protect the patient-physician relationship, fight legislative interference in evidence-based health care, and fight against the criminalization of physicians and other health care professionals providing care for their patients. We will continue to work with the administration, federal and state policymakers, and others to restore federal protections to all Americans.
***
About the American College of Physicians
The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization in the United States with members in more than 145 countries worldwide. ACP membership includes 160,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness. Follow ACP on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Contact: Jacquelyn Blaser, (202) 261-4572, jblaser@acponline.org