It is unimaginable that today, 20 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties don’t even have a single obstetrician or gynecologist. That’s why the University of Wisconsin established a rural residency program in hopes of ensuring that women in those OB/GYN-free counties will have more access to the care they need.
The new bill, introduced by State Rep. André Jacque, prohibits an employee of the University of Wisconsin System or the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority from, while in the scope of his or her employment, performing or assisting in the performance of an abortion… or training or receiving training in performing abortions, unless the training occurs at a hospital. Wisconsin law already prohibits public funds from being used for abortion training. The way medical students currently get their training is through a partnership with Planned Parenthood which is not a hospital. This bill would effectively put an end to abortion training altogether.
There’s another problem with that. Robert Golden, dean of UW-Madison’s medical school, explained to the Associated Press that the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requires that obstetrics and gynecology students at least be offered the option of abortion training in order for the University to receive and maintain accreditation. (The UW System currently offers that training as an “opt-in” program, where students only learn how to perform abortions if they want to.) With the proposed bill the university could lose its accreditation.
Jacques denies that any of this would happen. In fact, he insists that the schools would not lose their accreditation were this bill to become law. “I’m trying to get UW out of the abortion business,” he told the Associated Press. “I’m on pretty firm ground here.”
A reported 11 groups have registered in opposition to the bill, including Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Alliance for Women's Health and the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault. A Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) statement called the bill a “religiously motivated attack on one of our state’s most desperately needed secular institutions.” FFRF asserts that the bill is a blatant attempt to undercut constitutionally protected women's rights — and the state's premier institution of higher education.
"It proposes, without secular justification, to undermine the education of students at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, jeopardize that school's accreditation, and potentially exacerbate the shortage of qualified obstetrics and gynecological providers in the state," FFRF Staff Attorney Sam Grover states. "This bill is little more than a religiously motivated attack on one of our state's most desperately needed secular institutions."
Photo Credits: World Health Organization
