AAFP Medical Journal Article Bows to Homosexual Agenda, M.D. Says
by Mary Rettig and Jenni Parker
August 15, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The head of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations (CMDA) says the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is ignoring some major issues regarding homosexuality in a recent edition of its medical journal and also delving into some areas where healthcare providers should not go.
The July 15 issue of the AAFP journal American Family Physician contains an article by Dr. Sally Mravcak, M.D., called "Primary Care for Lesbians and Bisexual Women" (AFP, Vol. 74/No. 2), which posits that these women generally face the same health issues as heterosexual women but may have difficulty accessing appropriate care.
The author suggests that doctors' hesitancy to ask questions about women's sexual orientation and lesbian and bisexual patients' hesitancy to disclose such information can pose potential barriers to optimal healthcare. She says physicians can improve primary care for these patients by acknowledging this and "working to create a therapeutic physician-patient relationship."
But CMDA Executive Director Dr. David Stevens, who is also a member of the AAFP, says there should be no question about healthcare professionals giving good medical care to any patient, regardless of his or her sexual behavior. While he agrees with some of the author's positions, as on the importance of taking "an inclusive and nonjudgmental" medical history, for instance, he says problems come up when the article takes a turn from medical to social issues.
"I think the concern about the article is the fact that, first of all, it seeks to normalize and seeks to glorify and promote a homosexual lifestyle," Stevens observes. He says the article does this while "at the same time admitting some of the significant healthcare problems that occur because of that lifestyle."
The Christian physician says he feels the AAFP has been hijacked by a small segment of its membership who lobby to endorse and promote homosexuality as a normal expression of human sexuality. The American Family Physician article on medical care for lesbian and bisexual women starts out benignly enough, he contends, but then it takes a turn into activism.
"They talk about insurance, and they talk about inheritance laws, and all that kind of stuff," Stevens points out. "What they're doing is making a case for family practice doctors to be involved in those areas and making statements in those areas on medical-legal issues and social issues. I don't think that's the business of a family practice journal at all."
The CMDA spokesman says the article also discussed issues like insurance for lesbian partners and their children, and inheritance laws as they affect lesbian couples. He believes the AAFP, in publishing this sort of material, is bowing to the desires of the homosexual agenda.
Dr. Stevens agrees that organizations like the American Academy of Family Physicians should discuss the medical needs for all types of people, including homosexuals. However, he says doctors and other healthcare providers need to take a neutral view when it comes to the sort of social and legal issues raised in Dr. Mravcak's article.
