March 8, 2023

Pro-Life OB-GYN Association Banned from Educational OB-GYN Conference

Incoming AAPLOG CEO Dr. Christina Francis
The American Association of Pro-Life OB-GYNs (AAPLOG) is speaking out after it was banned from an annual educational conference hosted by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).

ACOG is known to have pro-abortion tendencies, but AAPLOG has been allowed to have an exhibit at the Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology (CREOG) and the Association of Professors of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (APGO) for 15 years.

According to AAPLOG CEO-elect Dr. Christina Francis, her organization was not notified that they were banned from the conference until after they arrived in Maryland to attend.

“We found out not from the person who had made the decision, or even anybody from ACOG, but from their third-party vendor,” Francis told LiveAction. “A vendor said he was instructed by ACOG to notify us that our booth was cancelled, and to refund us our money.”

“The conference is meant to be — which is why it was such a big deal — for those who are educating medical students and residents and OB/GYNs,” Francis said. “So they are responsible, largely, for the education of the next generation of OB/GYNs in this country. So it’s a really important conference, just because the things that are presented at this conference, and learned at this conference, then go out to all of these residency programs and medical school rotations across the country.”

She noted, “[ACOG] also filed a brief in support of the defendants in the lawsuit we are a plaintiff on, against the FDA over Mifeprex. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it, but these are the questions we wanted to ask.”

Mifeprex (mifepristone) is the first drug used in the abortion pill regimen. AAPLOG's lawsuit challenges the FDA's approval of the pill in 2000; arguing that the approval process is "deeply flawed" and the drug is unsafe.

Francis went to social media to voice her disappointment and challenge ACOG CEO Maureen Phipps to a debate about "the impact of elective abortion on the health of women."

“I will meet her anytime, any place so that we can present both sides of this issue and allow not only the general public but also the next generation of physicians to decide for themselves what the evidence supports,” Francis said in a video message posted to Twitter on Feb. 27.

ACOG Senior Manager of Media Relations and Communications Rachel Kingery told CNA that the ACOG did not plan to respond to Francis's video on Twitter.