The Biden administration is poised to permanently strip conscience rights from medical workers and require them to provide services that violate their religious and moral principles.
At the time of this writing, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was in the rule making process aimed at adopting new regulations to require healthcare workers to provide a wide range of services including: abortion, sterilization, assisted suicide, and gender re-assignment services.
The regulations would apply to Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, age, disability, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity. These regulations will likely apply to all healthcare providers, clinics, nursing homes, hospitals, group health insurers, and third-party administrators of self-funded plans.
It also affects pharmacists, teachers, students and faith-based charities.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) reacted strongly to the proposal. Senior Counsel Matt Bowman said:
“No American should be forced to violate their ethical and religious beliefs. Doctors, nurses, and other medical providers should enjoy this same constitutional protection, free to live and work in a manner consistent with their faith.
“Yet the Biden administration’s proposed rule would abandon healthcare professionals to being forced to perform medical procedures that directly violate their religious beliefs, or risk losing their jobs. This is an illegal and gross overreach of executive power, and we urge the administration to withdraw this harmful proposal immediately.”
Doug Wilson, CEO of the Catholic Benefits Association, believes the regulations represent a “well-crafted and well-thought out way” to oust religion from the healthcare field.
Technically, the move reverses a 2019 rule issued by President Trump that granted conscience protection to healthcare workers. That was immediately slammed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who called it “bigoted and immoral.” However, it was blocked by a federal court and never took effect.
Federal law already protects the moral and religious rights of healthcare personnel who work for recipients of federal funding. In addition, Georgia has a law in place that allows such workers to refuse to perform abortions.
A survey by Golden/TIPP Poll organization removing conscience protections does not have the support of a majority of Americans. Nearly one-half (49%) oppose scrapping the healthcare workers conscience rule.
Most Democrats (55%) and liberals (61%) support the move, but the majority of all other political affiliations and ideologies oppose it, including:
- 74% of Republicans
- 55% of Independents
- 69% of Conservatives
- 50% of Moderates
The survey also found that younger age groups support scrapping the conscience rule, while older age groups oppose it. 46% of those 18-24 years old, and 51% of those 25 to 44 support the move, but most in the 45 to 64 age group (57%) and 65+ age group (66%) want the rule to stay in place.
These developments are a stark reminder that elections have consequences. The people we put in office pass laws and appoint regulators. Far too often the results strip us of our religious freedoms and deny our God-given Personhood.
The answer is in your hands. Pro-life advocates are strongly encouraged to dig deeper than what candidates say or put into print to determine where they stand on these vital issues.
One easy way to do that is to email the candidate(s) with questions on the three most important issues to you. Ask them open-ended questions that can’t be answered by “yes” or “no” and be sure not ask leading questions.
Then only vote for candidates that support Biblical Personhood because innocent human lives depend on it.
Sources: foxnews.com; tippinsights.com; liveaction.org; lifesitenews.com.
By Wayne DuBois
Georgia Right to Life
Media Relations Advisor