The FRC is reporting, “He may technically be a “lame duck,” but President Bush is going out with guns blazing. With just two months left in office, the administration dealt a crippling blow to online gambling and is prepared to do the same to the pro-abortion movement on conscience exemptions.”

More Information:

Four Christian Medical Association members testified on September 12 before the President’s Council on Bioethics on the issue of conscience rights in healthcare. These testimonies are, to me, very convincing and hopefully will help more and more of us support a healthcare professional’s right to exercise his or her conscience when it comes to deeply-held religious or moral beliefs.

Excerpts below:

Here is a thought-provoking Op-Ed by Admiral Joxel Garcia, MD, the assistant secretary for health with the Department of Health and Human Services, published in The Washington Times.  He begins, “There is no more sacred right than the right of conscience – the right to be guided by one’s own cherished beliefs and morall convictions. In certain professional fields, like health care, questions of conscience are particularly likely to emerge.

More of the editorial:

There’s an excellent opinion piece in the LA Times titled, “The Fundamental Right to Refuse.” It’s by a ‘pro-choice atheist,’ who articulates that the present battle over conscience rights in healthcare is not only a fight for faith freedoms, but also a fight to preserve some of the most cherished unalienable rights on which western civilization and our republic was founded.

My Take?

For years the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA) has been advocating in Washington, DC for the conscience rights of its members and all healthcare professionals, encouraging legal protections and education and reform in the medical profession. The issue took center stage recently when the New York Times published an article based on a leaked copy of draft regulations by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on conscience rights in healthcare.

The revelation of draft regulations to protect conscience rights set off an avalanche of protests from abortion advocates, many of whom have asserted that healthcare professional literally should choose another career if unwilling to participate in abortions. Opponents of the regulations wrongly asserted that HHS was trying to stop abortions and limit contraceptive use—very difficult charges to make stick, since the regulations would not outlaw a single abortion and since HHS this year will fund over $1.6 billion in “family planning” services.

CMDA responded to the New York Times article and alerted its members to communicate with HHS and their congressional leaders, and to write letters to the editor, to explain the need for conscience protections in healthcare. Members responded with insightful communications and personal stories such as those excerpted below: