‘Conscience Protection’ Amendment Safeguards Pro-Life Health Care Providers
Groups that take a pro-life stance say the amendment allows health care workers to obey their conscience and refuse to provide abortions.
Conservative groups are applauding the passage of a pro-life provision which protects health care providers from being forced to provide, pay for, or refer for abortion services.
Congress passed on Saturday a $388 billion omnibus spending bill which included the “Hyde-Weldon Conscience Protection Amendment,’ sponsored by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill, and Dave Weldon, R-Fl.
According to groups who support the provision, current federal law already protects "health care entities" from having to perform or provide for abortions. But the amendment needed because current law had been misinterpreted to protect only individual physicians and training programs, leaving hospitals, health plans, nurses, and other health care participants without protection.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"The threat of discrimination is not theoretical, it is real," said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, Esq., Director of Planning and Information for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, in a Nov. 22 statement.
Ruse said, "Over a million abortions are done every year by willing abortion providers in this country. It is outrageous to suggest that Catholic health care providers and others with moral objections should be forced into the practice of abortion.”
"Already, hospitals in Alaska, New Jersey, and New Mexico have been discriminated against because of their pro-life policies."
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, called the amendment’s passage “a monumental victory in the fight for life.”
“Without this provision pro-life hospitals could be forced to participate in the unconscionable killing of innocent human life,” Perkins said in a statement. “Protecting the choice to not perform abortions is a huge win for right to life supporters and the pro-life medical community.”
Another win for groups who uphold the sanctity of human life is the passage of a ban on patenting human life. The bill also increased $30 million for Abstinence education programs.
One group which supports abortions, NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the amendment is only a payback for the religious right for their role in re-electing President Bush.
The group’s Interim President Elizabeth Cavendish stated, "It's only been two weeks since the election, but we can already see how things work in George Bush's second term. The far right will stop at nothing to advance its agenda. But the American people will only stand for so much. Simultaneously limiting women's ability to access reproductive health services and reducing their ability to prevent unintended pregnancies makes no sense at all."
"The opposition of abortion activists to this Amendment is telling," added Ruse. "The champions of 'choice' worked to deny the choice of health care providers to choose not to perform abortion. Here's more evidence that 'pro-choice' really does mean 'pro-abortion.'"
