As the Trump administration wages a relentless campaign against scientific evidence, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has emerged as a leading voice in the fight to protect medical integrity. Defying pressure from the White House, the organization is advising its 62,000 members to question the reliability of government health agencies and to engage directly with patients to combat the spread of medical misinformation.
ACOG President Dr. Steven Fleischman has been at the forefront of this battle, condemning the administration’s attempts to undermine established medical consensus. When the Trump administration cast doubt on the safety of Tylenol during pregnancy and halted COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for expectant mothers, Fleischman swiftly rebuked these “highly unsettling” and “alarmingly unbalanced” claims.
The organization’s unwavering stance has come at a cost, with ACOG becoming the first national medical society to reject federal funding over concerns that the administration’s policies on diversity and inclusion would compromise its research and advocacy efforts. “I’m proud ACOG didn’t cave,” said Dr. Kristin Lyerly, a Wisconsin-based OB-GYN and ACOG member.
This political activism marks a significant shift for the traditionally non-partisan group, which has dramatically expanded its state-level lobbying efforts in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. During the 2024 election cycle, ACOG’s political action committee more than doubled its donations to local and state candidates compared to 2020.
However, ACOG’s advocacy has also made it a target for conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Alliance Defending Freedom, which have called for the Department of Health and Human Services to cease its collaboration with the organization. This politicization of medical expertise has coincided with a worrying decline in public trust in doctors, a trend that ACOG is now working to counteract through its “Combatting Misinformation” initiative.
“People don’t like or don’t trust healthcare right now, but they love their own physician,” Fleischman said. “That is what we still have to hold onto – that idea [of] the trust that we have with our individual patients, which is why we’re telling our members: ‘Have these conversations, make sure you’re educating people. They trust you.'”
As the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to Medicaid threaten to further erode public confidence in the healthcare system, ACOG’s unwavering commitment to evidence-based medicine and patient advocacy has become a vital bulwark against the erosion of scientific integrity.
