{"id":13775,"date":"1981-10-15T16:47:00","date_gmt":"1981-10-15T23:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/?p=13775"},"modified":"2023-01-23T15:22:04","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T23:22:04","slug":"the-1981-presidential-valediction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/?p=13775","title":{"rendered":"The 1981 presidential valediction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">WDS Thomas<\/h4>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"171\" height=\"230\" src=\"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/cmaj.jpg\" alt=\"Canadian Medical Association Journal, CMAJ\" class=\"wp-image-11269\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Canadian Medical Association Journal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>Extract<\/strong><br>As official spokesman for the association, your public comment is governed by association policy. Most certainly personal views that are at variance with association policy must remain exactly that &#8211; personal views that are not expressed publicly. In reality, that wasn&#8217;t a problem for me. But I do want to respond to a letter-to-the- editor published in the Aug. 15th issue of CMAJ. The letter requests a motion of censure against me for misusing the position of president to espouse my personal views on abortion . . .There was nothing of any substance in my Halifax speech that was not in keeping with CMA policy. . . the author of the letter obviously based his comment on incomplete mass media reporting of my speech or a lack of understanding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Thomas WDS. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC1862684\/pdf\/canmedaj01353-0106.pdf\">The 1981 presidential valediction<\/a>. Can Med Assoc J. 1981;125(8):904, 907-908, 913-914. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WDS Thomas ExtractAs official spokesman for the association, your public comment is governed by association policy. Most certainly personal views that are at variance with association policy must remain exactly that &#8211; personal views that are not expressed publicly. In reality, that wasn&#8217;t a problem for me. But I do want to respond to a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/?p=13775\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The 1981 presidential valediction&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,3,4,1021],"tags":[1768,1287],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-13775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-birth-control","category-contraception","category-journal-oped","tag-canadian-medical-association","tag-wds-thomas"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\r\n<title>The 1981 presidential valediction - Protection of Conscience Project Library<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I want to respond to a 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