Madison-based University of Wisconsin Medical School and Public Health leaders are warning that the state's proposed bill limiting abortion training "would cost the school its OB/GYN accreditation," according to the Wisconsin Public Radio.
Under the proposed bill — introduced by Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Wis., and Rep. André Jacque, R- Wis. — employees and students of the UW System and UW Hospital and Clinics would be banned from performing or assisting the performance of an abortion. In addition, the bill bars employees from performing abortions at Planned Parenthood, where many UW faculty members currently train students. The bill would allow abortion training for students only in a hospital setting.
Opponents of the measure claim it would pose a serious threat to the school's OB/GYN accreditation and lead to declining enrollment in the medical school's OB/GYN program.
"If this bill passes, it destroys our OB-GYN residency training program," Robert Golden, MD, dean of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health told WPR. "This is not a bill about abortions; this is a bill about training the next generation of OB-GYN doctors."
During a public hearing on the bill, Joseph Lalli, a medical student argued that women will suffer if students are not properly trained on these techniques and that an emergent hospital setting would be a "chaotic" learning environment.
Supporters of the bill claim the medical school wouldn't lose its accreditation from limiting training on one procedure and also raise questions about whether UW physicians are being paid with state money to perform abortions.
"You really cannot stand for any more babies being killed and, even worse, on the state's dime," one of the co-sponsors of the bill, Sen. Leah Vukmir, R- Wis., told WPR.
The bill was first heard in an Assembly committee in July. Neither Senate nor Assembly committees have voted on the measure.