Gonzales v. Carhart: Amicus brief of the American Public Health Association
Nebraska, 2006
INTEREST OF AMICI CURIAE
Amici curiae are medical and public health organizations and institutions, as well as individual physicians and academicians who oppose the Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003 because it jeopardizes women’s health by criminalizing safe and effective abortion procedures, and further restricts the study and advancement of such procedures. Amici and their members believe that their insight and hands-on experience with the methods by which surgical procedures evolve and surgeons determine whether procedures are safe and beneficial for their patients will assist the Court in construing Congress’s findings and the impact of the statute in this case.
Amici include 41 individual physicians, surgeons, medical ethicists, medical historians and the following entities: American Medical Women’s Association (national organization of 10,000 women physicians, surgeons, and physicians-in-training dedicated to promoting women’s health), American Public Health Association (oldest, largest, and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world, has a long standing commitment to reproductive rights and reproductive choice), Medical Students for Choice (organization of nearly 10,000 medical students and residents seeking comprehensive medical education including abortion training), National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (represents clinicians, administrators, researchers, educators, advocates and providers in the family planning field who provide reproductive health care services at nearly 4,500 clinics to more than 5 million women annually), New York Obstetrical Society (a 140-year-old regional organization of
obstetrician-gynecologists and gynecological surgeons who are leaders in the field of women’s health care), Physicians for Reproductive Choice (national organization of physicians of various specialties that exists to promote, educate and advocate about the importance of comprehensive reproductive healthcare and to ensure that all people have the knowledge, access to quality services and freedom to make their own reproductive health decisions), University of Chicago Hospitals, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (physicians and surgeons, including maternalfetal medicine specialists, practicing at a top ranked hospital, affiliated with a leading academic institution)