HHS Puts Regulation to Protect Doctors Who Oppose Abortion

HHS Head Puts Regulation in Place to Protect Doctors Who Oppose Abortion

The final regulation that protects the right of federally funded health care providers to decline to participate in services to which they object, including abortion, was issued Thursday and is now in the Federal Register.
 
"Doctors and other health care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience," Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said. "This rule protects the right of medical providers to care for their patients in accord with their conscience."
 
Over the past three decades, Congress has enacted several statutes to safeguard the freedom of health care providers to practice their trade according to their conscience.  The new regulation will increase awareness of, and compliance with, those laws.
 
Specifically, the final, so-called "right of conscience" rule will:
 
· Clarify that non-discrimination protections apply to institutional health care providers as well as to individual employees working for recipients of certain funds from the Health and Human Services Department (HHS);
· Require recipients of certain HHS funds to certify their compliance with laws protecting provider conscience rights; and
· Designate the HHS Office for Civil Rights as the entity to receive complaints of discrimination addressed by the existing statutes and the regulation.

In a press release issued by HHS, the department explained about compliance with the new regulation:  "Officials are charged with working with any state or local government or entity that may be in violation of existing statutes and the regulation to encourage voluntary steps to bring that government or entity into compliance with the law. If, despite the Department's efforts, compliance is not achieved, HHS officials will consider all legal options, including termination of funding and the return of funds paid out in violation of the nondiscrimination provisions."
 
The regulation takes effect 30 days after its publication on Friday, Dec. 19, in the Federal Register.
 
Although the new rule protects health care workers from providing services that are against their conscience, it does not prevent a medical professional or health institution from providing any legal service, including abortion.
 
Federal protection of provider-conscience rights dates back to the 1970s when Congress enacted the Church Amendments.  The Amendments protect health care providers and other individuals from discrimination by recipients of HHS funds on the basis of their refusal -- due to religious belief or moral conviction -- to perform or participate in any lawful health service or research activity.
 
In 1996, Congress prohibited federal, state, or local governments from discriminating against individual and institutional health care providers (including participants in medical training programs) who refused to, among other things, receive training in abortions; require or provide such training; perform abortions; or provide referrals for, or make arrangements for, such training or abortions.
 
Provider-conscience protections were expanded again as part of the department's fiscal year 2005 appropriations act.  In that law, and in subsequent years' appropriations, Congress prohibited the provision of HHS funds to any state or local government or federal agency or program that discriminates against health care entities on the basis that the entity does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortion.
 
"Many health care providers routinely face pressure to change their medical practice, often in direct opposition to their personal convictions," said physician and HHS assistant secretary of health, Admiral Joxel Garcia. "During my practice as an OB/GYN, I witnessed this first-hand. Health care providers shouldn't have to check their consciences at the hospital door.  Fortunately, Congress enacted several laws to that end, but too many are unaware these protections exist."

Contact: Penny Starr
Source: CNSNews.com
Source URL: http://www.cnsnews.com
Publish Date: December 19, 2008
Link to this article:
http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/081229_2.htm