Healthcare Professionals’ Religious Rights Under Attack

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Healthcare Professionals’ Religious Rights Under Attack

CitizenLink is reporting that abortion advocates are targetiung federal guidelines designed to protect pro-life medical workers.
My Take?
This story, covered earlier this week in this blog, should be no surprise to any veteran of the culture war.
Abortion activists have launched a campaign to sabotage regulations being drafted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to enforce laws that protect the moral and religious rights of pro-life medical workers.
The proposed regulations simply pertain to healthcare professionals who refuse, as allowed under federal law, to perform or refer for abortions or prescribe drugs that may cause an abortion – like the birth control pill or morning after pill. 
The HHS guidelines would provide additional protection by proscribing that any recipient of federal aid, including hospitals, research clinics and medical schools, that restricts a medical worker’s right of conscience could lose federal funding.
Pro-abortion groups are outraged — which almost always means this is something good.
CitizenLife quotes my friend and colleague, Dr. William L. Toffler, a professor of family medicine at Oregon Health and Sciences University, “It’s ironic that individuals who claim to be ‘pro-choice’ really don’t allow the choice of a physician or health care provider to practice with integrity and to follow their conscience,” said Dr. Toffler. “The idea of asking a Christian hospital system or a Christian doctor to violate their consciences, to violate their integrity, is anathema to everything this country was founded upon.”
According to CitizenLink, Carrie Gordon Earll, senior bioethics analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said the regulations are crucial in the fight to protect life.
“Religious liberty and freedom of conscience are under attack, and nowhere is this more evident than in the areas of medicine and health care,” she said. “Federal safeguards increase the likelihood that pro-life hospitals and physicians will continue to be available to patients.” 
 

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