CHICAGO — Today, American Medical Association (AMA) President Jack Resneck Jr., M.D. provided testimony (PDF) to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations as part of its hearing, “Roe Reversal: The Impacts of Taking Away the Constitutional Right to an Abortion.” Dr. Resneck discussed the ramifications of the Dobbs decision on physicians and patients.
“The recent Dobbs decision overturned nearly a half century of precedent, ending patients’ rights to comprehensive reproductive health care, allowing government intrusion into the medical exam room, and criminalizing medical care. And, now, physicians in many states are reporting chaos and confusion,” Dr. Resneck said in his statement for the record. “Physicians have been placed in an impossible situation, trying to meet their ethical duties to place patients’ health and well-being first, while attempting to comply with vague, restrictive, complex, and conflicting state laws that interfere in the practice of medicine and jeopardize the health of our patients. Physicians are worried about prosecution of their patients and themselves in the midst of significant legal uncertainty and this is dangerous for our patients.
“We have only begun to assess the full impact of the Dobbs decision on our physicians and their patients. At this point, we have more questions than answers. The AMA is committed to its longtime opposition to criminalizing medical practice and will continue to challenge criminal or civil penalties on patients who receive reproductive health services, as well as physicians, other health professionals, health systems, and patient advocates for aiding, assisting, supporting, or providing reproductive health services or referrals to patients. We will also continue to protect the patient-physician relationship and access to evidence-based reproductive health care, including abortion.”
Dr. Resneck’s full testimony can be found at the following link (PDF).
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The American Medical Association is the physicians’ powerful ally in patient care. As the only medical association that convenes 190+ state and specialty medical societies and other critical stakeholders, the AMA represents physicians with a unified voice to all key players in health care. The AMA leverages its strength by removing the obstacles that interfere with patient care, leading the charge to prevent chronic disease and confront public health crises and, driving the future of medicine to tackle the biggest challenges in health care.
