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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 10, 2000
ACA MISREPRESENTS CHIROPRACTIC STRUGGLE
WCA USED AS "SCAPEGOAT" FOR GROUP'S FAILURE
CHANDLER, Arizona -- The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) has embarked on a campaign of misinformation intended to blame a competing organization for the failure of a Congressional bill which could have limited chiropractic to specific medical conditions.
In September, the ACA drafted a proposal which would have allowed chiropractic in the Veterans Affairs health care system but categorized chiropractic as a treatment for "neuromusculoskeletal conditions."
Many, if not most, doctors of chiropractic in the United States do not "treat" conditions, since that is a duplication of medical services. Instead, they detect and correct misalignments in the spine (called vertebral subluxations) which can interfere with normal nerve flow. This is a uniquely chiropractic service which cannot be performed by medical doctors. The ACA is more medically oriented and has supported the use of chiropractors for services normally performed by medical doctors. Its membership accounts for only about 10% of the profession.
The World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA) lobbied for changes in the provision's wording to allow veterans to obtain subluxation-correction services. The WCA submitted testifimony to the House and asked doctors opposing the wording to contact their legislators. In response to an overwhelming outcry from doctors, the chiropractic proposal was removed.
Smarting from its failure to push the bill through, the ACA attacked the WCA, calling it a "fringe group" and labeling the grassroots action "a reckless crusade." The non-profit WCA, founded in 1989, has members throughout the U.S. and other nations. WCA has been recognized as an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) with the United Nation's Department of Public Information and is in the process of establishing working relations with the World Health Organization. It publishes the largest monthly chiropractic newspaper in world, with a circulation of almost 70,000.
"If we were truly a fringe group, we would not have been able to stop the bill," stated Terry A. Rondberg, D.C., WCA president. "The fact is, doctors around the country stopped this provision because it was poorly worded and harmful to chiropractic. If the only way the ACA can succeed in Congress is to silence doctors, it's in for a rude awakening. Chiropractors will no longer remain passive while the ACA tries to dictate policy that will destroy their profession."
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