The Abortion Wars Get Technical (health-care workers can deny procedures due to religion/morality)

[Cash_thatswhatiwant]

Under a new regulation poised to become law any day now, any health-care worker may refuse to perform procedures, offer advice or dispense prescriptions--like the morning after pills pictured here--if doing so would offend their 'religious beliefs or moral convictions'

What does it tell us about the state of the abortion wars, that battles once waged over the dignity and autonomy of pregnant women have morphed into disputes over the dignity and autonomy of their health-care providers? Two of the most pitched battles over reproductive rights in America today turn on whether health workers can be forced to provide medical services or information to which they ethically object. But as we learn from these fights, our solicitude for the beliefs of medical workers is selective: abortion opponents will soon enjoy broader legal protections than ever. Those willing to provide abortions, on the other hand, will enjoy far fewer. And women seeking reproductive services will be more caught up than ever in the tangle between the two.


http://www.newsweek.com/id/172593?from=rss MORE

[Warren DeMontague]

1. Because it's not about abortion, it's not about "life". It's about stopping non-procreative fucking.

That's what it's always been about.

Anyone who doesn't understand that the major anti-choice groups want to outlaw the birth control pill just as badly as they want to outlaw abortion...

hasn't been paying attention.

[JerseygirlCT]

17. No, I disagree

It's about controlling women's bodies. They don't really care what the results are - or whether men indulge in said fucking. That's just men being men, don't you know?

It's about women, and women's bodies, and that completely unacceptable idea that women might be able to control their own bodies and their own reproduction.

[Warren DeMontague]

19. I see it as part of a larger agenda to institute "Biblical Law"

but, whatever, the end result is the same.

[JerseygirlCT]

20. End is the same, I suppose

I guess I just see controlling women at the center of it all! And not being any sort of fundamentalist, the bible part doesn't have the same scary power, IYKWIM.

[Arctic Dave]

2. If this is the case then the patient should be able to sue the

practioner for breach of duty and take away their ability to work in the medical field.

[JerseygirlCT]

18. Yup.

Let the practicioner take the hit for malpractice if their morals are so important.

Playing with women's medical health is not a game.

[PBS Poll-435]

3. I do believe that this is yet another 50 State Strategy

The Texas Medical Board and the releated agencies of the other 49 States need to curtail this bullshit now.

[Hekate]

4. I'd like to see the day that someone's "conscience" prohibits them dispensing Viagra

Not gonna happen, is it?

Hekate

[Nikki Stone1]

5. Excellent point

It's all about controlling women.

[DearAbby]

6. DING DING DING..............n/t

[Horse with no Name]

7. They need to think about the downside of this

This law is very broad. I'm a healthcare provider and being a Republican offends my moral convictions. Can I deny them lifesaving treatment?

[silverojo]

8. Yes! Please do!

:rofl:

[salin]

12. I know medical providers who find expensive, elective (non necessary)

medical procedues to be ethically wrong as those eat up diminishing available medical dollars/resources. Would those providers, under this broad ruling, be able to opt out of providing services on those grounds?

Sounds like the Nebraska safe haven law - allowing for a lot more than what the writers of the regs intend.

[Horse with no Name]

13. Where I work

I find many are biased against people on Medicaid, poor people, Hispanic, etc.
This is ripe for discrimination cloaked in moral objections.

[Jamastiene]

9. That sword is going to cut in so many different ways that it will be like

death by many many small paper cuts by many many different beliefs that people have. It will cause problems for years to come. Many lives will be lost during the time it takes for someone to find another doctor to perform what may be time sensitive life saving treatment. It will go deeper than abortion.

Will you be unfortunate enough to need a blood transfusion in a life or death situation while a Jehovah's Witness is in charge at the ER?

That sword cuts in every single direction possible. Talk about an abomination.

[Connonym]

10. I'm pro choice and I think doctors have a right to choose what services they provide

They otherwise pick and choose -- my GYN no longer delivers babies for example. When it comes to giving medical information they all have a moral responsibility to provide patients with all the facts, even those they disapprove of but when it comes down to providing the services I think that except in the case of emergency they should have the right to decide what procedures they choose to perform. Granted I live in a relatively liberal state but I think a lot more doctors are pro choice than pro life.

[Horse with no Name]

11. Then you need to re-read this law

It has a loophole that they don't even have to present the options that THEY find distasteful--therefore limiting information to the patient on the options available to them.
You realize that while intended for controlling womens choices--it is cloaked in very general terms.
In other words--a fat patient presents to the ER. You have a physician that hates fat people. That fat person needs a bypass surgery--instead, the only option he presents them is a diet. The patient dies because they did not get the treatment they needed.

[no_hypocrisy]

14. Does that mean a hospital can ask during an interview about someone's

beliefs about abortion without directly asking about religion and not hire staff who would refuse to perform their duties? Discrimination not on religious beliefs but due to their unwillingness to do their jobs?

[rocktivity]

15. But by denying me such care and services

are they not violating MY religious beliefs and moral convictions? Are they not doing EXACTLY what they accuse me of doing by "forcing" them to help me?

Good thing pro-choicers are in the majority.

:shrug:
rocknation

[Vinca]

16. This is way too much thrown into one pot.

Dispensing a birth control pill is light years away from performing an abortion. I can understand a person who cannot terminate a pregnancy. I don't understand a person who refuses to stop one from occurring.