American College Of Obstetricians & Gynecologists Attempt To Force “The Mark Of The Beastâ€
Pro-life physicians who refuse to abort or refer for abortion could soon be denied board certification and its attendant professional and economic benefits. This proposed requirement by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is pure politics. It has nothing to do with medicine. It is a crude, vindictive attempt to punish dissenting colleagues. Any woman who is capable of getting herself to a doctor who won’t refer for abortion is capable of getting herself to a doctor who will.
If Satan is the animating force behind abortion, is board certification about to become a precursor to the literal “mark of the beast” for Christian obstetricians and gynecologists?
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The Bush administration has asked a national group of OBGYNs to not discriminate against pro-life doctors who don’t want to be involved in doing or promoting abortions.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt opposes the new policy the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is considering. ACOG plans to review a policy on Monday that says all doctors, including those who are pro-life, should refer women to abortion centers.The group has been criticized heavily for releasing the statement last year entitled “The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Medicine” that insists that doctors who object to doing abortions should refer patients to physicians who will do them.
ACOG also requests that pro-life doctors move their practices closer to abortion businesses so women can have a shorter drive to get an abortion when their physicians refuse to perform or refer for one.
One of the biggest problems with the policy is that the college’s board could adopt it and doing or promoting abortions could become formally linked to physician board certification.
That could wind up making many pro-life obstetricians quit their jobs rather than be forced to do abortions. Leavitt, in a letter on Friday provided to LifeNews.com, called on the college’s board to reject the policy and protect the conscience rights of physicians.
In a letter to American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology director Dr. Norman Grant, Leavitt said the policy “would force physicians to violate their conscience by referring patients for abortions or taking other objectionable actions, or risk losing their board certification.”
In his classic commentary on the Book of Revelation, William Hendriksen describes the persecution to which Christians were being subjected while the Apostle John was writing Revelation in exile on the Isle of Patmos:
‘Be faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown of life’ (Rev. 2:10).
‘I know thy tribulation and thy poverty.’ Extreme poverty is meant. These people were often thrown out of employment as a result of the very fact of their conversion. Besides this, they were usually poor in earthly goods to begin with. Becoming a Christian was, from an earthly point of view, a real sacrifice. It meant poverty, hunger, imprisonment, often death by means of wild beasts or the stake.
The Lord tells these believers at Smyrna that they must not begin to pity themselves. They may seem to be poor but in reality they are rich, namely in spiritual possessions, in grace and its glorious fruits (Mt. 6:20; 19:21; Lk. 12:21).
Dr. Hendriksen goes on:
Refusing to partake of idol-meats, and especially refusal to attend the heathen feasts meant withdrawal from a great part of the whole social life of the time. For one thing the trades had their tutelary deities which would be worshipped at the feasts. Refusal to join in these feasts often meant that a man would lose his job, his trade, and become an outcast. Hence, some people began to argue that, after all, one might attend the feasts and partake in the meats offered to idols, and perhaps even offer incense to the gods of the heathen, provided that he constantly bear in mind – a kind of mental reservation – that an idol is nothing!
The Bible teaches that worse is yet to come:
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. Rev. 13:16-18
Please pray for courage for Christian physicians and contact ACOG to condemn this deplorable proposal:
409 12th St., S.W., PO Box 96920
Washington, D.C. 20090-6920
(202) 638-5577
govtrel@acog.org