Medical

Non-physicians secretly training to be abortionists

What you don’t know can’t hurt you, right? Well, in this case, it can.

The University of California San Francisco/Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health is conducting a taxpayer-funded program training non-physicians to perform first-trimester vacuum aspiration surgical abortions. This program is secretive; the court has denied a petition from the Life Legal Defense Foundation asking that information important to the program – such as who donated the millions of dollars to fund it – be revealed, and that the names of those involved be released.  Will the woman who lies on the table even know if the surgeon looming over her, holding the instruments of abortion, is a licensed doctor or not?

That sounds scary enough…but these non-physician abortionists are performing abortions after two to five days of training.

As Dana Cody, executive director of the Life Legal Defense Foundation, says, “[e]ven licensed hair stylists get more education time.” Cody expresses concern as to where the money funding this program is coming from: “There’s a $3.5-million grant, and we don’t know who the money is from. Then there’s other funding from the taxpayers.”

Cody also states that the program’s own documents show that injury rate is 80 percent higher when non-physicians perform abortions than when the abortion is performed by a doctor.

And remember, this program is funded by California taxpayer dollars.

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  • Guest

    Being pro-life doesn’t mean that you can’t tell the truth.  Really. 

    This program is secretive; the court has denied a petition from the Life
    Legal Defense Foundation asking that that the program be made public…

    The project has been made public.  It has been widely reported in the press (both real news outlets and fake ones like Live Action), is discussed at length on the project webpage, and the results have been disseminated to the California legislature and medical institutions. 

    and that the names of those involved be released. So the woman who lies
    on the table won’t know if the surgeon looming over her, holding the
    instruments of abortion, is a licensed doctor or not.

    The locations where the training is taking place are public information, and each patient is informed of the project and given the option of being seen by a physician if she wishes  prior to the procedure.  LLDF is simply throwing a tantrum because UCSF is forcing them to do the hard work of identifying clinicians by old-fashioned stalking instead of giving them the names.

    That sounds scary enough…but these non-physician abortionists are performing abortions after two to five days of training.

    These people are already medical professionals working at clinics, you know, not coming in off the street.  They demonstrate ability to perform abortions in simulated exercises, and then begin working under supervision. They can begin practicing independently only after performing a minimum of 40 abortions under supervision.

    The program’s own documents say that injury rate is 80 percent higher
    when non-physicians perform abortions than when the abortion is
    performed by a doctor.

    Thus far in the study, 1% of patients in physician-performed abortions have had complications, while 1.5% of patients whose abortions were performed by non-physicians had complications.  I doubt that’s much different from what would be seen in a comparison of recent med school graduates with all physicians.  I don’t know, of course, but I’m pretty confident in guessing that you don’t either.

    I’m not saying I support non-physicians performing abortions, incidentally.  I’m just saying that it’d be great to occasionally see pro-lifers telling the whole truth, instead of half-truths and outright lies.

    http://www.ansirh.org/_documents/research/pci/hwpp_curriculum1-10-09.doc
    http://www.ansirh.org/_documents/research/pci/HWPPfacts12.11.pdf
    http://www.oshpd.ca.gov/HWDD/2011/HWPP/pdfs/AbstractHWPP171.pdf

    • http://twitter.com/margiemiguel Margie Miguel

      “half-truths and outright lies” — that’s YOUR department. Add brutal murder of innocent children to the list.

    • Detroiter327

      When there is an article/blog posted with outright lies it should be removed ASAP. The fact this article is still up after the corrections have been posted iis pathetic. Its hilarious the person below accuses you of lying, when you provided documentation. The article above provides none. Anyone who is serious about this cause should demand accurate facts. Sadly this blog does not provide them.

    • liveaction

      This post has been updated with the author’s original sources.  It has also been clarified that while the program itself may be public, the funding, clinicians, and parties involved are being treated in a very secretive manner.  As was originally reported here, this is a taxpayer-funded program that trains non-physicians to perform abortions in a matter of days.  This entire scenario is appalling, and the public should receive as much information as they are entitled to.  

  • Jay E.

    Well, this is just typical of the abortion industry, so I’m certainly not surprised. 

    • Detroiter327

      This is actually not considering whoever wrote this article might as well have made these numbers up in their head. It is not based on factual evidence.

      • Guest

        considering whoever wrote this article might as well have made these numbers up in their head.

        More likely he’s just parroting whatever the Life Legal Defense Foundation told him.  LiveAction does a lot of water-carrying for more staid groups that are trying to reach the teenybopper audience.

  • Detroiter327

    The fact this is still up after being corrected is horrible. Seriously? You are knowingly spreading false information at this point.

    • liveaction

      This post has been updated with the author’s original sources.  It has also been clarified that while the program itself may be public, the funding, clinicians, and parties involved are being treated in a very secretive manner.  As was originally reported here, this is a taxpayer-funded program that trains non-physicians to perform abortions in a matter of days.  This entire scenario is appalling, and the public should receive as much information as they are entitled to.  

  • rebeccarose7

    Even if you were pro-choice, I don’t understand how anybody can see this as being a good idea…