Don’t blame osteopathy

Re “Dr. Larry Nassar was not a doctor,” Opinion, Jan. 28

It’s an ugly fact. Larry Nassar is a convicted child molester who hid behind his medical license to justify his crimes. There is nothing medically acceptable about his actions.

Yet this op-ed article recklessly compared a known but rarely used treatment to a sadistic sex act and further implied that the osteopathic medical profession condoned the practice.

“No need to fact check that,” the author wrote. In a blow to its credibility, the Los Angeles Times granted this columnist’s wish.

Fact-checking would have found that there are no “approved” medical procedures that involve grabbing a woman, young or otherwise, by the vagina. Physicians who are not convicted child molesters call that sexual assault.

Defaming all osteopathic physicians with no factual basis shows a willful disregard of basic journalistic standards. All physicians, DO or MD, follow well defined protocols for intra-pelvic procedures, regardless of the diagnostic or therapeutic purpose.

Don’t take our word for it. Ask your doctor.

Mark A. Baker, DO Chicago The writer is president of the American Osteopathic Assn.