Dear Vice President Harris,

We are the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM), a coalition of medical professional organizations representing over 30,000 physicians who serve their patients in accordance with the values of the Hippocratic Oath, the vow that has defined medical ethics for centuries. Every day, we strive to offer excellent healthcare to all our patients, no matter their gender, race, economic status, or stage of life.

Yet because several major medical organizations that shape the landscape of the medical profession no longer share these Hippocratic values, our physician members face ongoing threats to their ability to practice excellent medical care for their patients. At every stage of their careers, from medical school onwards, doctors who still practice medicine by first doing no harm fight pressure from faculty, employers, professional organizations, licensing boards, and more, urging them to practice in ways that hurt or kill their patients such as induced abortion and euthanasia, and to participate in practices that cause their patients irreversible harm such as gender transition on children.

Given the tremendous political pressure that these medical groups exert to attempt to force physicians into practices which harm or kill our patients, we must rely on government bodies and political leaders like you to protect our right not to be forced to hurt or end the life of our patients in our practice.

That is why we were dismayed to hear your response to NBC News’ Hallie Jackson when she asked whether you would allow for religious exemptions in your abortion policy: “I don’t think we should be making concessions.”

In our pluralistic nation filled with professionals of all faiths and values, it is important that leaders protect everyone’s ability to practice in accordance with their conscience. Forcing medical professionals of faith to kill human beings in the womb destroys the very ethic that caused medical professionals to go into the practice of OB-GYN: to care for the lives of both the mother and the human being in her womb.  Forcing medical professionals to destroy healthy well-functioning bodies in childhood and creates lifelong dependency on trans hormones is doing great harm, in violation of our oath to first do no harm to our patients.

Trampling these rights hurts the careers and livelihoods of caring, competent medical professionals and worsens shortages of healthcare that already plague our country.  But more than the effects on the physicians forced to do harm to their patients are the effects on patients themselves, many of whom want a physician who they can trust not to harm them.

As physicians who have devoted our lives to our patients and our profession, we urge you to affirm your support for the conscience rights of medical professionals and commit to protecting these rights by preserving and enforcing existing legal protections.

We would be honored to aid you in this endeavor as physicians who are personally affected by attacks on our conscience rights, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Respectfully,

Donna Harrison, MD

Chairwoman, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine Board of Directors