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OBSTETRICS-PROLIFE Oct-17-2006 (910 words) xxxi
Doctor says Catholics who won't perform abortions face pressure
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
ROME (CNS) -- Catholic obstetricians who respect the dignity of motherhood and the life of the unborn risk disappearing in societies where abortion is legal, said the head of an international group of Catholic obstetricians and gynecologists.
Obstetricians who oppose having to perform abortions as part of their training or in their practice at public or private health care facilities sometimes face "a sort of medical totalitarianism" and feel tremendous pressure to "do it this way or not at all," Dr. Robert Walley, founder and executive director of MaterCare International, told Catholic News Service Oct. 12.
Walley and some 60 other obstetricians from 14 countries were in Rome Oct. 11-15 as part of the fourth MaterCare International workshop for Catholic women's health specialists.
Part of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, MaterCare was founded in 1995 to "serve the culture of life" wherever mothers and their children are neglected or abandoned, said the British-born doctor. This year's workshop looked at ways the dignity of motherhood and the practice of obstetrics could be protected and promoted.
"Like the dinosaur who was frozen out by a climatic change, that's happening to us," Walley said, explaining that Catholic obstetricians who wish to avoid being involved with abortions are being "frozen out by the climatic change that occurred when abortion was brought in 30 years ago."
When he started his studies more than 35 years ago, Walley said obstetrics was a prestigious and even joyful profession because the doctors were helping "the co-creators" of life bring a new child into the world and "the outcome was always happy."
But all that changed with legalized abortion, he said, and most practitioners "became depressed."
"It doesn't matter what side of the argument you're on with the abortion issue, nobody wants to spend their life doing abortions if you're a trained surgeon, a trained gynecologist," he said.
But he said the largest factor that has led to the drop in new recruits for obstetrics and gynecology is the climate of litigation.
"There's a crisis in obstetrics because no one wants to go into it," he said.
"The world now expects perfection, so if you don't get it and we can't guarantee that," he said, patients often sue the obstetrician, which then discourages people from continuing or even getting into this field.
Walley said he had no idea how great an impact legalized abortion would have on his and other doctors' lives and careers.
He lived and trained in England, but was soon forced to leave when Britain's state-run National Health System required him to perform abortions.
"I said, 'No,' and they said, 'No, you have to do it and if not you have to either change your specialty or leave.' And I chose to leave," he said.
He moved to Canada, where he joined the faculty of a new medical school, and while the school did not require him to teach or perform abortions, "they weren't happy I had a particular view of things, and that pursued me until I retired from clinical practice last year."
"Every civilized country has always recognized conscientious objection even in the time of war, but not in the time of abortion, and it's an outrage," he said, adding that many countries, especially in Europe, do not protect a doctor's right of conscience.
However, more than a decade ago the U.S. Congress passed legislation that provided a protection of conscience clause when new regulations required abortion training in all residency programs.
Dr. John Seeds, professor and chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., said half his residents are practicing Catholics and that they openly enjoy their studies, even at this public, secular university.
"There's not this evil cloud" hanging over them that would have come with a requirement to study or perform abortions, Seeds, chair of MaterCare USA, told CNS.
Father George Woodall, professor of moral theology and bioethics at Rome's Regina Apostolorum university, reaffirmed the importance of protecting the right and dignity of conscience, saying conscience does not reflect mere personal opinion or feelings, but reflects an individual's desire to pay witness to truth.
He did, however, caution against an attitude of what he called "paternalism" when it came to doctors or health care workers not providing patients with information on procedures or services that go against their own religious beliefs.
"To deny a patient proper information so they can make an informed choice ... is paternalistic," he said, but "choosing not to do harm" by refusing to carry out an abortion, sterilization or euthanasia "is not paternalistic."
It is morally licit, he said, for health care workers to look after a patient before or after her abortion "provided they don't endorse it" or participate in preparations for the procedure.
"Counseling for an abortion is equally gravely wrong," he said, even though some doctors think they should be part of state-run counseling programs in the hopes of dissuading the woman from having an abortion.
Seeds said pro-life individuals must continue to advocate for the unborn and keep up dialogue with people who do not agree with the church's position.
"The pro-life movement of the church argues from a supportive and loving position, not a destructive, hostile position. We have to love it out of them ... it's the only way to make it work," he said.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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