CMA Physicians Say New HHS Civil Rights Regulation Will Protect Patients and Medical Access

December 18, 2008

Dr. David Stevens, CEO of the 16,000-member Christian Medical Association (CMA, www.cmda.org) today said that a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regulation implementing over 35 years of civil rights laws governing healthcare will “protect patients and patient access to physicians who adhere to life-affirming ethical standards.”

“By protecting physicians and other healthcare professionals who still adhere to the Hippocratic Oath, the Judeo-Christian Scriptures and other objective standards of medical ethics, this regulation serves to protect patients who want access to conscientious and compassionate care from life-affirming physicians,” Dr. Stevens said. “These objective standards have for millennia formed the foundation of patient care and protection, and this regulation insures that physicians and others won’t be run out of the profession for upholding those standards.”

Dr. Stevens noted, "A scientific poll reveals that only 38 percent of Americans realize that physicians may not legally be coerced into performing or referring for abortions. It’s time to educate the medical community to restore these civil rights and put an end to discrimination.”

Dr. Stevens noted that 41 percent of CMA members responding to a survey reported being “pressured to compromise Biblical or ethical convictions.”

“Physicians report being forced out of medical positions, residents report loss of training privileges, and students report discrimination in medical school admissions,” Dr. Stevens said.

“Over the past 35 years, Congress has passed civil rights laws to protect healthcare professionals from such discrimination, and today those laws are finally being implemented. We commend Secretary Leavitt for implementing the law, for protecting First Amendment freedoms, and for upholding the interests of patients who value and are protected by life-affirming standards of medical ethics,” Dr. Stevens said.

CMA Senior Vice President Dr. Gene Rudd, an obstetrician-gynecologist, added, “Medical students have been reporting to us that they are deciding not to pursue careers in obstetrics and gynecology for fear of coercion to do abortions. Obstetricians are already being forced out of the profession because of soaring malpractice insurance costs. Forcing yet more obstetricians out of the profession simply for following the Hippocratic Oath and other medical ethical standards would only further harm patient access. Like such ethical standards, this regulation ultimately protects patients.”

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