Idaho enacts law protecting conscience rights for medical professionals
Idaho has enacted a new law designed to protect healthcare providers from having to perform or participate in procedures that violate their deeply held beliefs.
Idaho’s Republican Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 59, also known as the Medical Ethics Defense Act, into law Wednesday. Little’s approval of the legislation follows its passage in a 58-11 vote in the Republican-controlled Idaho House of Representatives and a 28-6 vote in the Republican-controlled Idaho Senate.
The votes in both chambers fell along party lines, with Republicans generally supporting it and Democrats opposing it. Two House Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the measure.
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The legislation declares that “No health care professional, health care institution, or health care payer should be required to participate in or pay for any medical procedure, treatment, or service, or prescribe or pay for any medication, to which he objects on the basis of conscience, whether such conscience is informed by religious, moral, or ethical beliefs or principles.” The law shields healthcare providers from facing discrimination or liability for exercising their right to conscience.
The measure contains a provision protecting the right of religious healthcare providers to “make employment, staffing, contracting, administrative, and admitting privileges decisions consistent with” their religious beliefs. Individuals who believe their rights are being violated will have the opportunity to seek civil remedies.
Idaho’s enactment of the MED Act received praise from the conservative religious liberty law firm Alliance Defending Freedom.
“Patients are best served by healthcare professionals who are free to act consistent with their oath to ‘do no harm,’” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Greg Chafuen in a statement Thursday.
“Unfortunately, doctors and nurses have been targeted for caring for their patients by refraining from harmful and dangerous procedures,” he added. “What may be worse, countless young professionals are kept out of the healthcare field because of fear that they will be forced to violate their conscience.”
Chafuen said the MED Act ensures “healthcare professionals are not forced to participate in procedures that violate their ethical, moral, or religious beliefs.”
Healthcare professionals have faced professional repercussions in other states because of their opposition to participating in certain procedures.
Robyn Strader, a nurse practitioner who formerly worked at a CVS Pharmacy MinuteClinic, was terminated from her position because of her religiously based objection to prescribing contraception.
Paige Casey and Suzanne Schuler are additional MinuteClinic nurse practitioners who were fired over religiously based objections to prescribing abortion-inducing drugs and contraceptives.
In Maryland, a federal judge ruled in 2023 that a Catholic hospital violated the Affordable Care Act by refusing to conduct a hysterectomy on a biological female who identified as a male.
The MED Act is not the only legislation recently enacted in Idaho designed to protect people who exercise deeply held religious beliefs.
Last year, Idaho enacted House Bill 538, which prohibits “compelling any public employee or public school student to communicate preferred personal titles and pronouns that do not correspond with the biological sex of the individual seeking to be referred to by such titles.”
According to a report published last summer by the Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy at First Liberty Institute, the other states with general conscience protections for healthcare professionals are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina and Washington.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
