The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

Public Input Sought on Anti-Conscience Proposal

By Doug Carlson - Mar 31, 2009 - 4

For decades, the fundamental right to life for developing children in the womb has not been protected in this nation. This is well known. Less known is the fact that protections of conscience rights for those seeking to defend unborn human life are diminishing by the day. And the right to conscience for health care workers is in the stages to go next.

At the behest of President Obama, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a proposal “to rescind in its entirety” a regulation put in place by President Bush to protect health care workers from being discriminated against for refusing to participate in abortions or other medical practices in violation of their religious beliefs. But before these protections are completely scrapped, HHS has requested public input on the proposal. The nation’s top health agency has entered the regulations into a mandatory 30-day public comment period set to end April 9.

President Obama turned these gears of change into motion earlier this month with his formal intent to rescind his predecessor’s policy that better enforces existing laws. It became the second of three major attacks the 44th president has leveled thus far on conscience protections, matching his twin orders forcing taxpayers to fund abortions overseas and destructive experimentation on human embryos inside our borders. Just two months into a four-year term, the administration has already become a well-oiled machine driving out safeguards on life and moral convictions.

The right of conscience for health care workers has been legally protected for more than three decades under a series of provisions renewed annually by Congress: the Church Amendment, the Coats-Snowe Amendment, and the Weldon Amendment. But widespread misunderstanding and violations of these policies led the Bush administration in December to bring clarity to the confusion with a federal regulation implementing the existing laws. The regulation also put in place a mechanism within HHS for individuals to seek recourse for discrimination. This was much needed.

The importance of maintaining existing conscience protections is great. The Christian Medical Association has found that 40 percent of its members have been pressured or discriminated against based on their pro-life convictions. If anything, such cases of coercion and discrimination have only grown in number and severity over the years.

There have been other disturbing plots of coercion. In 2007, for example, the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology adopted an ethics opinion that, if put in place, could give physicians the ultimatum of either referring to other providers for abortions, in violation of their conscience, or losing their board certification.

Stripping the conscience protections would be damaging to medical professionals and patients alike. Absent conscience-protection regulations, many pro-life physicians and health care providers would turn to other vocational fields where there is less likelihood that conscience and career would collide. And patients would no longer have the option to choose physicians who respect unborn life.

Protecting conscience in the medical field should not be subject to question. It is essential to upholding the First Amendment freedom of religion.

If you agree, please express your opposition to President Obama’s proposal by emailing proposedrescission@hhs.gov. Or send your comments online at Regulations.gov by entering 0991-AB49 in the search box. Also, if you have been pressured to compromise your conscience in the medical field, please share that in your comments as well.

For more information on this issue, visit Freedom2Care.*

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