Case: 23-10362 Document: 543-1 Page: 20 Date Filed: 08/16/2023
who are doctors. The Organizations offered testimony from representatives of the American College of Pediatricians, American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Christian Medical and Dental Associations, and Catholic Medical Association—each of whom explained that their membership includes thousands of doctors and hundreds of OB/Gyns and emergency-room doctors. See Dickerson Declaration ¶¶ 3, 13; Dr. Harrison Declaration ¶ 8; Dr. Barrows Declaration ¶ 5; Dr. Van Meter Declaration ¶ 8. Given the large number of women who experience serious medical complications due to mifepristone, and the large number of association members who are emergency-room doctors, the Medical Organizations argue, it is highly likely that one or more of their members will be required to provide emergency care to a mifepristone patient in the near future.
b. Doctors’ Injuries
The Medical Organizations and Doctors present evidence of four ways they are injured by providing emergency care to women who used mifepristone. First, that treatment violates their conscience rights, putting them in a position where they must perform or complete an abortion even though doing so is contrary to their moral beliefs. As described by one doctor:
The FDA’s expansion of chemical abortion … harms my conscience rights because it could force me to have to surgically finish an incomplete elective chemical abortion. I object to abortion because it ends a human life. My moral and ethical obligation to my patients is to promote human life and health. But the FDA’s actions may force me to end the life of a human being in the womb for no medical reason.
Dr. Skop Declaration ¶ 34. And multiple doctors testified that others they knew have been required to complete a failed chemical abortion against their consciences, or to provide related care. Dr. Francis Declaration ¶ 13; cf. Dr. Barrows Declaration ¶ 26.
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