Obama to rescind "Conscience Rule"

[ruthiechan]

I got this from the AFA today.

Obama seeks to take away religious rights of doctors and health care providers who refuse to perform abortions

Urgent: send your e-mail to the White House today!

According to several news agencies, President Barack Obama will rescind the "conscience rule" that protects health workers who refuse to participate in abortions or other medical procedures that go against their moral and religious beliefs. If the rule is rescinded, doctors, nurses and other health care workers could lose their jobs or be punished professionally for adhering to their sincerely held religious convictions. Obama's proposal would take away their religious freedom.

The current rule empowers federal health officials to cut off federal funding for any state or local government, hospital, clinic, health plan, doctor's office or other entity if it does not accommodate employees who exercise their right of conscience. It applies to more than 584,000 health care facilities.

The Obama administration is doing the bidding of pro-abortion advocacy groups who seek to penalize health care providers who refuse to participate in abortions.

According to The Washington Post, Obama administration officials stressed that the proposal will be subject to 30 days of public comment. That is why it is so very important for you to let the White House hear from you today.

Go to this link to send your letter: AFA - American Family Association - Activism

[Wingnut]

I don't put stock in anything the AFA has to say. They're too extreme.

[MarginOfError]

Let me start out by noting that I am a proponent of a conscience rule for certain health care workers.

That being said, Bush’s rule needs to be rescinded. It is a very poorly written rule that, through exceptionally vague language, permits just about anyone working in the health care industry from performing work related to practices that person finds objectionable. Bush’s rule doesn’t distinguish between the health care provider, the scheduler, the accountant, or the janitor.

Under Bush’s rule, a person who is assigned to clean an operating room has the opportunity to refuse to do so if the room was used to perform an abortion. A scheduler could refuse to make an appointment for a patient in which the patient would receive family planning counseling (including discussions about condoms and birth control pills). In fact, under Bush’s rule, I could probably get out of the project I’m working on now.

I am currently working on a report of my institution’s performance over the past year. The institution I work for operates a clinic for high risk pregnancies, and each year there are a certain number of abortions performed where there are fetuses that are not expected to live long after birth (and not even to birth in some cases). But, under Bush’s rule, I could reasonably claim that I find the practice morally objectionable and refuse to compile the report so long as the abortions are being reported. You might think it isn’t a big deal to remove the abortions from the report, but the number of therapeutic abortions performed in that clinic is an important performance measure. If I were to refuse to compile that report, I would have legal protection to keep my job, and my institution would have to completely reshuffle personnel to fit me into a role where I did not have to report statistics on practices I find objectionable.

My point being, Bush’s conscience rule is so broad in scope that it has the potential to cause some serious complications and wrinkles in patient care. If you have schedulers, maintenance personnel, statisticians, and accountants all refusing to touch any part of their work that deals with objectionable practices, you could quickly grind the health care industry to a halt.

By rescinding Bush’s rule, Obama can revert back to the old rule, or write a new one. Under the old rule, health care providers—people having direct influence on a patient’s health care—have been protected by such a rule. In some states, this protection has come under fire, which is absolutely heinous. Instead of trying to protect bad rules, we should write a good rule, that guarantees that physicians who find a practice objectionable may refuse to perform the practice so long as they offer a reputable referral to a physician willing to provide the service (or the institution provides another physician).

I’ve said it before, but be careful with what you get from the AFA. They are almost as extreme, biased, and bigoted a political group as you can find in American politics these days.

[RachelleDrew]

I was on board until I read this part of the article....

"Thanks for caring enough to get involved. If you consider our efforts worth supporting, would you please consider a small tax deductible donation to help us continue?

Sincerely,

Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman

American Family Association"

Yeeeeaaaaahhh....no. Those people are known for being nutbags.

[lusciouschaos]

The AFA can be extreme unfortunately there are not many moderate conservative voices willing to do the work to get the issues out there.

[bytor2112]

This from Meridian magazine....Meridian Magazine:: Family Leader Network: Stimulus Bill is “Generational Theft”

[hordak]

This from Meridian magazine....Meridian Magazine:: Family Leader Network: Stimulus Bill is “Generational Theft”

It's funny the quote the old Hippocratic oath.

. Not supporting a doctor's or nurse's pro-life views is essentially asking them to betray the Hippocratic Oath which says, “I will use treatment to help the sick, according to my ability and judgment, but I will never use it to injure or wrong them. I will not help a patient commit suicide, even though asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a plan. Similarly, I will not perform abortions.”

the one that also says

I swear by Apollo, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath.

and

I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.

Since abortion is legal, general practitioners do perform minor surgery, and very few people worship Apollo the oath has changed and doctors can perform abortion without breaking the oath. If they even decide to take it.

I also noticed

Yet, the Obama administration has sent signals that they intend to rescind the conscience regulations that the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department put in place just as President Bush was leaving office.

However 42 U.S.C. § 300a-7 (which doesn't allow public officials to order Drs to perform sterilization or abortion, and protects them from being discriminated against because of this refusal) has been in effect since the 1970s.

[Gwen]

My point being, Bush’s conscience rule is so broad in scope that it has the potential to cause some serious complications and wrinkles in patient care.

have any of your examples actually happened? just wondering.

[MarginOfError]

have any of your examples actually happened? just wondering.

No, they haven't...and I would like to keep it that way.

The old rule was a superior rule in writing. I don't like the practice of replacing rules and laws with obviously inferior substitutes.

[ruthiechan]

I was on board until I read this part of the article....

"Thanks for caring enough to get involved. If you consider our efforts worth supporting, would you please consider a small tax deductible donation to help us continue?

Sincerely,

Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman

American Family Association"

Yeeeeaaaaahhh....no. Those people are known for being nutbags.

I never donate.

But it doesn't mean that they're all nutbags or that everything they do is not of worth.

MOE: I've heard of health care professionals who are assistants being told that if they didn't assist a doctor performing an abortion they would lose their job. I don't want to see that happening again. As I understand it an assistant is not directly performing the abortion and are therefore not protected under the old rule.

Edited March 3, 2009 by ruthiechan
clarification

[Moksha]

While the American Family Association was a Comrade-in-Arms with the Mormon Church against homosexuals, they are unfortunately also against Mormons.

[MarginOfError]

Human Nature : Abortion? Don't Mention It.

Wow, you mean Obama is aiming for some middle ground? What a terrible thing for a national leader to do!

[Hemidakota]

I got this from the AFA today.

Obama seeks to take away religious rights of doctors and health care providers who refuse to perform abortions

Urgent: send your e-mail to the White House today!

According to several news agencies, President Barack Obama will rescind the "conscience rule" that protects health workers who refuse to participate in abortions or other medical procedures that go against their moral and religious beliefs. If the rule is rescinded, doctors, nurses and other health care workers could lose their jobs or be punished professionally for adhering to their sincerely held religious convictions. Obama's proposal would take away their religious freedom.

The current rule empowers federal health officials to cut off federal funding for any state or local government, hospital, clinic, health plan, doctor's office or other entity if it does not accommodate employees who exercise their right of conscience. It applies to more than 584,000 health care facilities.

The Obama administration is doing the bidding of pro-abortion advocacy groups who seek to penalize health care providers who refuse to participate in abortions.

According to The Washington Post, Obama administration officials stressed that the proposal will be subject to 30 days of public comment. That is why it is so very important for you to let the White House hear from you today.

Go to this link to send your letter: AFA - American Family Association - Activism

Please cutoff the funding....few rebellious states had already closed and refuse any rehanded tax money of federal agencies anyway.

[Hemidakota]

While the American Family Association was a Comrade-in-Arms with the Mormon Church against homosexuals, they are unfortunately also against Mormons.

Must be members of the same group called ACLU...

[Moksha]

Must be members of the same group called ACLU...

I don't know what to think about that ACLU. They will stick up for the rights of both the Mormon Church and the AFA when those rights are being downtrodden. Talk about wishy-washy do-gooders!

[Hemidakota]

Personally, I think they only offer services to those of the right when they are in need of monetary funds to push their own agenda.

[ruthiechan]

I don't know what to think about that ACLU. They will stick up for the rights of both the Mormon Church and the AFA when those rights are being downtrodden. Talk about wishy-washy do-gooders!

They also stick up for NAMBLA.

Please cutoff the funding....few rebellious states had already closed and refuse any rehanded tax money of federal agencies anyway.

What? Maybe I'm just dense but I don't know what you're talking about here. . .