Search Results: Dr. Autumn Galbreath

Let me introduce you to Aidah. She worked in our home (our “inside worker”) during the eight months our family lived in Kenya in 2003/2004. Don and I worked at Tenwek Mission Hospital as family physicians, and our three children attended elementary and middle school at nearby Rift Valley Academy. She helped me buy food and cook it, and she kept our house clean. Aidah was our backbone. She was a rock.

It will come as no surprise that the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recently released a special issue filled with articles and opinions arguing for the absolute necessity of access to legal abortion. One opinion that caught my attention was entitled “Implications of the Dobbs Decision for Medical Education Inadequate Training and Moral Distress.” CMDA recently publicly released a new position statement on moral distress, so I was naturally intrigued. Were the authors of this opinion piece actually going to make the argument that the lack of access to elective abortion, a procedure that has been considered immoral for thousands of years, will cause moral distress among upcoming students and residents? Exactly.

I have a dear Christian friend of whom I have finally had to say, “This is as good as it gets,” and leave him in the Lord’s hands.

The official journal of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), Obstetrics and Gynecology, (often referred to as the Green Journal because of its traditional green cover) recently featured an article entitled “The Ghost of Savita Halappanavar Comes to America.” The article refers to a pregnant woman in Ireland named Savita Halappanavar who died in 2012 from an inappropriately managed second trimester miscarriage.

This week, our kids’ Christian school published The Statement. They sent it out with The Letter. And they asked for The Signature. And once again, our family began the now-familiar dance of shame, grief, anger, prayer, isolation, indignation and so many other emotions that bubble in the toxic stew Christian organizations often throw onto families like us.

When I was a child—maybe six, maybe seven—I went through a phase of suspecting the entire world existed as a massive play with one star—me. That is, I was the main actor and the rest of humanity played supporting roles. That is, the universe revolved around me. That is, I was all ego.

Much is being made of the “moral injury” healthcare professionals suffer, which, rightly so, has been exposed and highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moral injury consists of an accumulation of a number of things, such as straining to care for the overwhelming number of incredibly sick patients, having to make wrenching decisions on prioritizing use of medical resources, etc. The focus on the subject is to address a practical need, like workforce supply in the face of increasing burnout among healthcare professionals, but it also addresses a personal human desire to ensure the personal well-being of another, which is the healthcare professional in this case.

We have been privileged as American healthcare professionals to practice medicine according to our sincerely held beliefs, at least until the relatively recent past. However, as many of our members know from personal experience, those conscience freedoms are coming under increasing attacks from several quarters. In this post, we want to remind the reader of the conscience protections that exist at the federal level and explore why those protections are currently endangered.

Just today in a text exchange about job hunting, a CMDA friend reminded several of us that God can lead us in a variety of ways. Many times, God calls us, or pulls us, into the roles He has for us. We feel clearly instructed, and we feel certain we are following His leading as we step into a new chapter, be it a job or school or church or a new family decision. As American Christians, we are used to thinking about decision-making this way, I think. We feel that we must not know the right thing to do if we don’t feel pulled to one of the options. We pray for clarity, and we seek advice because we want that sense of calling, of being pulled in the direction God would have us to go.

I am one of those parents who didn’t let her daughter (though she begged and begged) read the Harry Potter book series when she was 10…and 11…and 12. Even though her friends were reading them. Even though the whole world seemed crazy about them, and she was an avid reader.

We are all dying. Every day we are alive moves us closer in line to that day of transition from this life to eternity. There is no need to hurry death.

Ever since the American Medical Association’s (AMA) meetings in both the summer and fall of 2022, I have felt a huge tug on my heart by the Holy Spirit. And that tug is persistently asking me to address the issue of unrestricted abortions as a woman’s right to authority over her body, including the unrestricted right to abortion.

In the final installment of the series, we critique the argument that deviations from normative heterosexuality are a part of God’s design and hence morally neutral.

Until there were ventilators, and until organ transplantation became a therapeutic reality, the designation of death was based solely on cardio-respiratory criteria.

In a recent sermon, I learned about a fascinating organization called the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura. A children’s orchestra outside of Asuncion, Paraguay, the Recycled Orchestra plays on garbage.

We have no real power to change others. We can point them toward truth, we can pray for them and we can show them rational and emotional reasons to change; ultimately, any growth on their part must be motivated by their own desire and decision to change.

As an OB/Gyn, I would like to understand why the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) came out against the ruling in Texas by Judge Matthew Kaczmarek regarding Mifepristone in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine vs. FDA. ACOG says it is safe and effective in all their talking points, and it says that it is healthcare. According to Webster’s Dictionary, healthcare is “the maintaining and restoration of health by the treatment and prevention of disease especially by trained and licensed professions.”

CMDA’s Advocacy Department is focused on serving as your voice to the government, media and public on bioethical and public policy issues. Much of the grassroots advocacy efforts we take on both federal and state levels depend on your individual involvement.

At the 2023 CMDA National Convention my wife Evelyn and I were honored, blessed and quite humbled to receive the 2023 Educator of the Year Award. This all happened under the watchful eye of Princeton’s Professor Robert George, whom I have admired for years (and no, I did not go full fan boy and embarrass CMDA, but we did talk privately a while). I was given a few minutes to share some thoughts which I am now offering you, my colleagues.

The cultural phenomenon known as “wokeness” is grounded in human pride, and it is expressed through moral absolutism, moral grandstanding and the will to control.

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows” (Psalm 23:5, ESV).