Liz, spot on.
The AMA WANTS midwives to be disempowered by NOT having prescription rights, and wanting the IM to lose her independence by being dependant on doctors. You'll find the AMA will oppose the ability for IM's to have access to whatever they need to conduct smaller interventions for safety and health in a home setting, the way they can and have for decades in the UK and Netherlands.
Sure, I understand not wanting to write a script based on a letter from an IM you've not worked with. The fact that this is how some IM's need to get their necessary birth tools (even though they largely go unused) into their toolboxes is just archaic and paternalistic. Just the way the AMA wants it to stay so that they 'win' the argument the medical lobby started a couple of centuries ago. Grrr!
I'm pretty sure "complying" midwives will have medicare provider numbers and prescribing rights as of Nov 1st. Only problem is, in order to be compliant just one of the conditions is that have insurance which homebirths midwives can't access. So hospital employed midwives will be able to do these things... but then they don't need to if they work in a hospital!
One step forward... oh wait, not really.
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