In a May 15 article in USA Today, written by Marcia Angell and Michael Greene, by two renowned Harvard physicians, the question is asked: “Where are the Doctors?” “They have been strangely silent about” . . . “an unprecedented and sweeping legal assault on women’s reproductive rights.”

The American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) has NOT been silent. Since this “assault” began, AMWA has issued numerous statements expressing shock and dismay that our legislators can be taking us back to the same sexist and paternalistic debate that we thought was over and done with decades ago.

The AMWA website contains a six-page position statement on Reproductive Health which advocates for reproductive rights and freedoms for all women, and, since January of 2012, AMWA has issued multiple public statements promoting these rights. AMWA has collaborated with the National Women’s Law Center’s “I Will NOT Be Denied” Campaign, joined the Coalition to Protect Women’s Health Care, signed on to the Doctors for America Letter to Protect Women’s Access to Contraception, and written a letter applauding President Obama’s Decision to Reject Exemption on Cost-Free Birth Control Coverage. In December of 2011, we called for Removal of Barrier to Access to Plan B One-Step.  

One of the few multispecialty organizations for women physicians, AMWA has been the “Voice and Vision of Women in Medicine” since 1915, and has worked for nearly a century, representing the opinions of women physicians and advocating for social and medical policies that promote the health and well-being of women and women physicians everywhere.