American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Caught in a Lie

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is holding itself out as experts on the issue of whether contraception functions as an abortifacient or not. Let’s face it, they should be. The problem is that the group is playing politics instead of practicing science.

Richard Doerflinger tears them up but good at The Public Discourse. Seriously, if this piece had subtitles they would be “Bam, Pow, Oof.”

He rightly points out that ACOG has submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the Hobby Lobby case. Essentially, the thrust of the group’s argument is that the owners of Hobby Lobby are just simply confused about how contraception works. They argued that contraception such as PlanB does not prevent implantation of the already fertilized egg. They say that the contraception works to prevent fertilization altogether.

But…and this is a big BUT… the group has argued the exact opposite point in the past. Doerflinger writes:

ACOG and some of these other medical groups have been publicly declaring, at the same time, that “science” shows exactly the opposite to be true. They argue that, because a variety of commonly used birth control methods do attack embryos after fertilization, legislators and voters should defeat efforts to declare legal personhood for human beings from fertilization onward.

ACOG’s current public position is that these initiatives “would make condoms, natural family planning, and spermicides the only legally allowed forms of birth control.” In other words, ACOG says that a ban on killing embryos after fertilization would ban all the contraceptive methods covered by the HHS Mandate.

One month before ACOG filed its Hobby Lobby brief in October, the Washington Post editorialized that “the practical effect of ‘personhood’ measures . . . would easily include banning the most popular forms of contraception. This is because the pill, as well as other forms of birth control, work partly by preventing the implantation of eggs in the uterus wall [sic] after they have been fertilized. Here the Post cited that objective voice of medical science, ACOG, which holds that “some of the most effective and reliable forms of contraception—oral contraceptives, intrauterine devices, and other forms of FDA-approved contraceptives—would be banned” by a law that respects life beginning at fertilization. That is, ACOG holds this to be true except when it is filing briefs saying it is false.

So, as you can see, when arguing against personhood for the unborn, ACOG claims that contraception can attack post-fertilization. But in arguing against Hobby Lobby, they state that contraception only acts to prevent fertilization.

ACOG is a political tool masquerading as a scientific community.

And through it all, somehow pro-lifers are the ones always getting accused of ignoring science.