Commentary
For nearly half a century—ever since the Supreme Court decided there was a federal constitutional right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade in 1973—abortion activists have been trying to figure out how to get more physicians to actually perform the procedure. It’s been a tough battle. A widely publicized survey of OB-GYNs published in 2011 indicated that although 97 percent of respondents said they had been approached by female patients seeking abortions, only 14 percent of them offered the service.
That number has ticked up to 24 percent over the past decade, according to some reports, an indication that the situation hasn’t changed much. Perhaps physicians—who tend to work in large corporate-style practices these days—fear the disapproval of their colleagues. Perhaps they don’t want to deal with pro-life protesters outside their doors. Or perhaps they just plain have moral qualms….