Medical Conscience Rule Bush’s Last Moral Stand?
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects every American from discrimination in the workplace when religious differences surface. A growing and vocal group of healthcare workers say they are being discriminated against, in spite of the 1964 act, when their jobs require them to take part in abortions, sterilizations, dispensation of birth control pills and devices, and similar procedures or discussions that compromise their moral or religious convictions. They’ve asked for stronger protections and President George W. Bush has just granted them.
On Thursday, December 18, president Bush signed into legislation a group of measures, known collectively as the conscience rule, that specifically addresses such discrimination within the healthcare industry. As a liberal, Barack Obama has said he wil undo many Bush Administration regulations once he takes office and this particular group of regulations is expected to be a part of his government reform measures.
The Bush Administration is said to be involved in approving a flurry of regulations, signed at the last minute, so they become effective just one day before the Obama Administration is sworn in. All new acts take effect 30 days after they are published in the Federal Register. The Bush conscience rule, approved on December 18 and published in the December 19 issue of the register, is one of many new regulations facing the new administration. Even with the in-coming administration’s vows to undo them, their undoing will be time consuming.
Under the conscience rule, as under the 1964 civil rights act, anyone who suffers job discrimination for refusing to do work they find religiously or morally objectionable can do so without jeopardizing their employment status. If such discrimination is proven, the employer faces the loss or return of federal funding.
The rule is being hailed by abortion opponents, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Catholic Health Association. Not in favor of the rule are the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, who say the regulation threatens a woman’s right to reproductive freedom and the medical care she needs or deserves.
Question for MedHeadlines Readers
Should healthcare professionals, who oppose abortion for moral and religious reasons, be protected by law, just like thousands of other workers whose religious views are protected?
Post your comments below
Healthcare providers regularly face pressures to change their medical practice, often in direct opposition to their personal convictions. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects the conscience rights of all individuals in their pursuit of gainful employment, including health care services. Decades ago, shortly after the Supreme Court in 1973 established a right to abortion, Congress adopted laws clarifying that no one was required to perform an abortion. Later laws declared, “No individual shall be required to perform or assist” in any medical research or procedure “contrary to his religious beliefs or moral convictions.” The new rule bolsters existing laws in areas of healthcare that are intolerant of individual objections to abortion or individual religious beliefs or moral convictions.
Surprisingly, abortion advocates have lashed out with objections that not only strike at the core of their own proclaimed beliefs, but also serve to undermine Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Pro-abortion activists and their followers, by contesting a rule that only serves to strengthen long-standing laws based on the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, bring their motives into question. People who claim to be defending a basic, human, “right to choose” on one issue are now “choosing” to attack the same basic right on another issue, thereby placing the importance of their personal interests over what they themselves have long-claimed to be a “basic human right.”