In response to a request by members to move society events from locations rendered unsafe for all participants by recent Supreme Court decisions, the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) has issued a statement regarding CHEST 2022, to take place in Nashville in October ignoring the potential safety concerns to some conference attendees, noting the economic importance of medical conferences to the cities in which they are held and making several  historically incorrect claims about the efficacy and consequences of boycotts.  We, the undersigned, feel as though the ACCP statement ignores the fact that principles of equity and access to healthcare for all are core principles in our profession. As such, we urge the ACCP to pledge to only hold future societal events in jurisdictions that adhere to the principles of equity and equal access to healthcare for all. 

Any event held in a jurisdiction in which the government interferes with the provision of reproductive healthcare is not equally open to all participants. Persons who are or maybe pregnant place their health at risk anytime they travel to a place in which the provision of emergency healthcare may be dangerously delayed or even prohibited. Moreover, as many jurisdictions are moving to police the behavior of all patients who may seek abortion services, participants may be subject to burdensome investigation or intrusive examination of their private conduct by authorities. By proceeding with events in locations that feel unsafe to a large proportion of our own colleagues, many members interpret this to mean that either (1) the safety of some of our colleagues can be disregarded or that (2) the presence of all our colleagues is not a priority.

We agree with the ACCP that our community is hungry for in-person opportunities to grow and acknowledge that moving conference locations has economic ramifications that may make moving CHEST 2022 at this late date financially impossible. However, in the future we cannot allow our community to sacrifice a commitment to medical core principles – these include access to healthcare for all regardless of their medical diagnosis and personal decisions regarding their medical care.  At this point in time, to enter into agreements to hold meetings in places in which medical care is restricted is to offer tacit and financial support to places that do not value the patient-physician relationship. 

 We urge the ACCP to commit to ensuring future meetings are scheduled where elected leaders understand the importance of reproductive freedom and respect the sanctity of the physician-patient relationship.