Your Help & Testimony Are Needed

RESOLVED, That the American Academy of Family Physicians oppose limitations on Medicaid coverage of medication abortion.

This resolution effectively seeks to:

1. Remove gestational limits for medication abortion
2. Repeal the Hyde Amendment to support Medicaid coverage for abortion.

The AAFP Physicians for Life Member Interest Group and ACFM opposes this resolution because it:

1. Oversteps the FDA’s gestational age safety restrictions
2. Overrules the Hyde Amendment, which has been a necessary compromise supported and continued by 4 Democratic and 4 Republican presidential administrations
3. Compromises the AAFP’s bipartisan political endeavors, which would put our other key priorities at risk in Washington DC
4. Puts lives at risk.

The Rules Committee affirmed this as current policy, but we can still offer testimony in opposition to the precepts given.  Our current AAFP policy supports medication abortion, as well as payment for medication abortion by all payers including those funded by state and federal governments.  However, current policy does not allow an extension of the medication abortion past FDA-approved gestational ages, nor does it “provide guidelines for later gestational ages with no limit” as referenced in the 5th whereas clause.  Please testify, letting AAFP leaders know that you do not agree with this resolution, whether it is regarded as current policy or not.

You can provide online testimony by typing a comment in the comment box at the bottom of the web page after the text of the resolution, which you can find here:

https://www.aafp.org/about/congress-delegates/2024-COD/2024-resolutions/2024-resolist/california-d.mem.html

RESOLVED,  That the American Academy of Family Physicians update its reproductive health policies to align with the American Medical Association policy H420.954, “Truth and Transparency in Pregnancy Counseling Centers,” to state any entity providing crisis pregnancy services be truthful and transparent about the services they offer or for which they refer in all communications before any services are provided to an individual patient; support the development of oversight for entities offering pregnancy-related services and counseling; ensure the care provided is performed by appropriately qualified and licensed personnel abiding by federal health information privacy laws; and support public funding for entities providing complete, non-directive, medically accurate health information to support patients’ informed and voluntary decisions, and be it further

RESOLVED,  That the American Academy of Family Physicians oppose the use of taxpayer dollars to fund crisis pregnancy centers or similar entities that align with the American Medical Association’s policy statement H420.954, titled, “Truth and Transparency in Pregnancy Counseling Centers,” and support funding for programs that provide, “complete, non-directive, medically accurate health information to support patients’ informed, voluntary decisions.”

This resolution seeks to do the following:

1. Discredit the value crisis pregnancy centers bring to pregnant individuals. 
2. Disregard the social support used by pregnancy resource centers to address health disparities
3. Incorrectly suggests that licensed professionals do not staff most crisis pregnancy centers
4. Asks the AAFP to create a regulatory body to provide oversight of pregnancy resource centers

The Physicians for Life Member Interest Group opposes this resolution for the following reasons:

1. Many medical directors of pregnancy resource centers are licensed physicians, good-standing members of the AAFP, board-certified, and licensed to practice medicine in their state. 
2. Addressing health equity in pregnancy includes supporting individuals who wish to support their pregnancy, rather than only assisting with terminating it. 
3. State medical boards have sufficient authority to license physicians, and AAFP should refrain from spending resources to create some other regulatory body for this purpose. 

You can access the resolution to provide online testimony by clicking here:

https://www.aafp.org/about/congress-delegates/2024-COD/2024-resolutions/2024-resolist/washington-c.mem.html