OB-GYN and U.S. Rep. Kelly Morrison Leads Colleagues in Recognizing American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ 75th Anniversary

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Representative and OB-GYN for more than 20 years Kelly Morrison (MN-03) led the U.S. House of Representatives in commemorating the 75th anniversary of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). 

Over the last 75 years, ACOG has been dedicated to advancing women’s health: standardizing prenatal and cancer screenings, expanding reproductive healthcare, and serving as the standard bearer for information on contraception, cancer screening, STI screening and treatment, obstetric care, surgical advances, nutrition, abortion care, vaccines, menopause care, and everything in between.

Rep. Morrison led almost two dozen of her colleagues in a resolution that honors ACOG’s decades of work and leadership in women’s healthcare and commits to investing in women’s health and strengthening obstetrical and gynecological care across the United States. 

This anniversary comes as threats escalate to restrict access to mifepristone, a safe and effective medication that has been used not only in abortion care but to manage miscarriages for decades, when maternal death rates in the U.S. continue to rise, and when abortion bans across the country are creating a critical doctor shortage.

Representative Morrison is the first and only pro-choice OB-GYN in Congress and spent more than 20 years caring for patients in Minnesota. 

“ACOG is grateful for Rep. Kelly Morrison’s leadership in recognizing and honoring the 75th anniversary of our organization. For decades, ACOG has worked with members of Congress to advance policies that support the OB-GYN profession and importantly improve access to obstetric and gynecologic health care for all individuals in their communities. We thank Rep. Morrison for her work, both as an OB-GYN and a legislator, to expand access to care and her steadfast dedication to improving the health of the people she represents and women across the country,” said Camille A. Clare, MD, MPH, CPE, FACOG, president of the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists.  

Read Rep. Morrison’s full resolution recognizing ACOG here. 

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Watch a video of Representative Morrison’s remarks on the House floor HERE and below.

Read a transcript of Representative Morrison’s remarks below:

This past Sunday millions celebrated the work, love, and support mothers give to their children and families across the country.

There are so many ways, seen and unseen, that mothers show up for their families and care for their communities. 

I know that I am incredibly grateful to my beloved mother and for the privilege of getting to be the mother to my three wonderful children. 

Appropriately, Mother’s Day also marked the beginning of National Women’s Health week.

This provides the opportunity to highlight women’s health, reflect on the progress we’ve made, the ongoing research we need and to commit to continued advancement of access, quality, and affordability in women’s health care.  

Advancing women’s health and delivering the best possible care requires a strong collaboration between the many care givers and entities that have built and continue the work of advancing women’s health care.

One organization that has been an indispensable partner to all obstetrician gynecologists in their quest to provide the best evidence-based care to their patients over the past 75 years is the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Over its 75-year legacy, ACOG has never wavered from its foundational mission of advancing the quality and consistency of care for women through guidance, education, and professional collaboration.

In the early years of its existence, ACOG set out to create evidence-based standards and develop opportunities for clinicians to continue their education.

Growing scientific progress and an expanding focus on women’s health opened doors for the organization to serve as a leading voice as the nation experienced historic advances like the FDA’s approval of the birth control pill and the Griswold v. Connecticut decision that established the right to privacy and therefore the right to use contraception, which had been illegal in Connecticut and many other states prior to this decision in 1965.

As these events established the policy landscape for women’s health, ACOG continued its work standardizing prenatal and cancer screenings, introducing its own academic journal, and establishing the requirements to achieve high honors in the field of obstetrics and gynecology.

The landmark Roe v. Wade decision, as well as the establishment of the Title X program, which was the first federal grant program in the United States dedicated to providing family planning and other preventative health services to low-income families, both elevated women’s health further and supported ACOG’s efforts to expand access to reproductive health care to all Americans regardless of their ability to pay. They also amplified the importance of understanding the causes of maternal mortality and working to decrease it.

During this time ACOG was at the forefront of building reliable, trusted programs that helped standardize evidence-based medicine, integrate cultural competency, and strengthen policy partnerships.

ACOG’s role in women’s health was also extended to helping protect the patient-physician relationship.

From the critical influence in the Doe v. Bolton decision, which was the companion case to Roe v. Wade in which the Supreme Court struck down burdensome procedural requirements that effectively made abortion completely inaccessible in Georgia, even if the patient's life or health were threatened, to the mobilization needed in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision in 2022 which overturned Roe.

ACOG serves as a trusted source for evidence-based guidance for care across the lifespan for patients and providers alike. 

Both turn to ACOG for information about critical topics ranging from contraception, cancer screening,  STI screening and treatment, obstetric care, best surgical practices and advances, nutrition, abortion care, vaccines, menopause care, and everything in between.

In its continued pursuit of advancing women’s health care, ACOG has championed work to understand and address the systemic issues vulnerable women and populations face.

Through pioneering initiatives like the Committee on Health Care for Underserved Women and the recognition that health is deeply impacted by factors beyond biology and clinical care, ACOG was an early leader in establishing opportunities for communities´ lived experiences to be heard and incorporated into our understanding of disparities and how to address them. 

As ACOG expanded its focus on reviewing and understanding the impact of systemic inequities and disproportionate burdens of maternal mortality in minority communities, ACOG continued its work of building robust and responsive clinical guidance and programming that centers respectful care and quality improvements.

During times of transformational advancements like the development and approval of the HPV vaccine, the Affordable Care Act, and historic investments in maternal death prevention efforts, ACOG has led and helped expand key collaborations and partnerships.

The last few years have brought unprecedented challenges and rapid change. During the COVID 19 pandemic and in the wake of the Dobbs decision, ACOG held strong to the foundational mission that has driven its work for decades, strengthening equitable, accessible obstetric and gynecologic care.

ACOG’s presence and leadership during these pivotal moments for women’s health and the profession they’ve represented over the last 75 years has helped translate the lifesaving scientific advances and give evidence-based guidance and stability to a profession that has, is, and will continue to be monumentally consequential to families across the country and in every Congressional district.

Reflecting on the incredible progress of the last 75 years also brings to the forefront the importance of the work still left to build and expand.

Despite the incredible advances in women’s health, challenges and obstacles to fully achieving the mission of equitable, accessible care remain.

An estimated 36% of counties in the United States are maternity care deserts, meaning they do not have a hospital or birth center offering obstetric care or any obstetric providers.

Two-thirds of these maternity care deserts are in rural areas that are also the most vulnerable to disruptions in services and hospital closures.

Approximately 1.2 million women live in counties with only one OB-GYN.

By 2035, the estimates are that 44 U.S. states are projected to not have enough OB-GYNs to meet those states' needs, with the most severe shortages in rural areas.

Women in many communities are already traveling long distances to access prenatal care or to deliver safely in a hospital.   

In the wealthiest country in the world, in a country built on the principles of human dignity and freedom, these alarming statistics can and should lead to a unified bipartisan effort to address them.

We’ve seen how the work and legacy of ACOG and its members have helped support historic achievements while upholding the core goals of access and quality of care.

Facing and overcoming persistent challenges demands a commitment to science and evidence-based practices for:

Setting the standards for OB-GYN care,

For advocating for policies that advance the field, and

Empowering physicians to provide patients with the care they need.

All while building on each of those areas to inform continuing education opportunities, refine clinical guidelines, and continue the evolution of the field of obstetrics and gynecology.

Beyond navigating increasing administrative burdens, burnout and workforce instability, OB-GYNs are having to deal with health and medical misinformation jeopardizing their work and their patients’ well-being.

Patients are increasingly exposed to misinformation about contraception, fertility, pregnancy care, menopause, vaccines, and reproductive health. 

This creates fear and confusion, undermines trust, delays treatment, and poses real risks to patients and families. 

That is why trusted scientific leadership matters. 

ACOG and generations of physician-researchers have helped translate rigorous science into evidence-based care that improves outcomes for women across the lifespan.  

Throughout my career in medicine and public service, I’ve worked to support evidence-based approaches that deliver for families.  

From championing expanding Medicaid coverage to 12 months postpartum in Minnesota to advocating for the reauthorization of the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act in Congress, I’ve advocated for advancing early intervention and prevention to save lives. 

Healthy mothers, healthy babies, and healthy families strengthen communities, reduce long-term healthcare expenditures, and improve the long-term resilience of our nation.  

I had the privilege of caring for patients as an OBGYN for more than 20 years, so I’ve seen firsthand the challenges patients face to afford and get the care they need. 

I’ve seen the impacts of some of the medical breakthroughs and improvements to care that have occurred over the decades.

And I've seen how social determinants of health make it so difficult for many Americans to have good health.

As an OBGYN, I’ve seen my patients directly benefit from practices that were built on decades of research, clinical trials, and the dedicated work of multiple generations of my fellow OB-GYNs.

These advances were the result of hard-fought advocacy and awareness campaigns, committed work from researchers and physicians, and patient voices being centered and truly heard.

One of the great privileges of my years in practice was caring for my patients across different stages of their life.

OB-GYNs see patients from adolescence through adulthood to end of life. 

I have cared for patients that I delivered through their own pregnancies and I have cared for many through early adulthood, to mid-life, through perimenopause and menopause and beyond.

ACOG has been there every step of the way to provide evidence-based recommendations to help guide my and my patients' decisionmaking.

In the decades I’ve spent in this remarkable profession, it’s been my sincere honor and privilege to provide the care my patients needed,

From prenatal care through labor and delivery, to contraception to hormone replacement therapy, from the exam room to the operating room, 

Helping patients through important life stage transitions, creating care plans through shared decision making with my patients, always working to meet patients where they are to meet their unique needs.

ACOG has been a critical partner throughout my career and the careers of many thousands of OB-GYNs across the country.

In a rapidly changing world that is marked by advances in technology and access to an avalanche of information, not all of which is accurate, it is difficult for many of us to fully understand how drastically circumstances have changed for women and how transformational historic moments were to women’s health and safety.

Younger generations of Americans and even some older Americans may not be able to recall a United States without protected access to birth control or an HPV vaccine.

My career as an obstetrician-gynecologist began at a time when foundational concepts in public health and clinical practice were better defined and elements critical to progress like the right to privacy and the ability of women to make their own independent health care decisions were protected.

In the last decade, as women’s health, rights, and protections have been threatened and eroded, I’m thinking of my patients and of people across our country.

I'm remembering my patients who disclosed, in some cases for the first time in their life, their traumatic experiences prior to the protections of Roe v. Wade. 

I'm thinking of my younger patients who worried about the possibility of losing protected access to abortion care as the Supreme Court ruled on the Dobbs case.

And I'm thinking about the babies I delivered, protected by vaccines from preventable, life-threatening conditions and the mothers spared from complications because of comprehensive, evidence-based clinical guidelines and access to comprehensive care.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t take the opportunity to remind everyone in this moment when access to mifepristone is threatened: the research on mifepristone has not changed.

It has been an FDA-approved medicine for a quarter of a century.

It has been used safely and effectively by millions of women around the globe.

For my entire 20 year-plus career as an OBGYN, mifepristone has been used to help women manage miscarriages and safely end pregnancies.

Its safety record surpasses most over-the-counter medicines!

What has changed is the people in power. 

People with no medical training who want to undermine access to health care, control women’s bodies, and ignore evidence-based science because of their own personal ideology.

Putting their desire to control and restrict women, women whose lives they know nothing about and who they will never meet, over facts and research and safety.

It sets a very dangerous precedent for us all.

 As we celebrate the milestones of the last 75 years of ACOG, we also have a responsibility to face future challenges head on, mindful of all that we have gained and conscious of is being lost, unwaveringly committed to improving the lives of all people seeking care, their families, and their communities.

So I offer a heartfelt thank you to ACOG, for 75 years of always standing with patients and physicians, and for its ongoing work to improve health care and the health of our patients. Onward to the next 75.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back.

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