Reproduced with the permissions of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, USA

USA: Rights of Conscience - Exactly Whose Conscience Wins?

If you were to listen to the liberal establishment, you would think there was a terrible abuse of human rights happening here in the US.

 In fact, in April of last year, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich implemented an emergency rule. For what dire emergency you might ask? He ordered all Illinois pharmacies that carry contraception to have all pharmacists provide it to all patients presenting prescriptions, including the emergency contraction (the so-called “morning after” pill). Many pharmacists refused to fill these prescriptions because they believe that many oral contraceptives (in particular the “morning after” pill) are an abortifacient, and instead of preventing conception, these hormonal treatments can actually cause an early abortion after a woman is pregnant.

 “Planned Parenthood is proud to stand along side the Governor…and thank him for his leadership in Illinois and in the United States to safeguard reproductive rights and to protect women's health,” said Karen Pearl, national president of Planned Parenthood.

There are many recognized rights of conscience within the realms of the medical field. For example, the right of a patient to decide what treatment is ethical and appropriate for themselves has long been recognized. And there has been a general understanding that a healthcare facility such as a hospital may determine what procedures and polices which will be implemented and encouraged, such as the case of Catholic hospitals refusing to do abortions. Also, there has been a general consensus recognizing the right of physicians to limit the treatments and procedures they provide by their training or their moral conscience. Until recently, all healthcare professionals have had the right to refuse to participate in situations or procedures that they believe to be morally wrong or harmful to the patient or others.

 But no longer. Our friendly ACLU, the defender of “civil liberties,” and Planned Parenthood will stomp on your rights if they think you happen to deny someone else of what they perceive is their rights.

 The ACLU apparently considers contraception a “human right.” They declare on their web site, “If you are denied EC (emergency contraception), know that legal action is possible. EC is a legal form of contraception and you have every right to obtain it.”

Teresa Stanton Collett, JD, a professor of law at University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis writes, “When understood in this manner, the question becomes that of whose freedom should trump the other. Should the doctor remain free to act in accordance with her conscience, or should the patient be free to obtain a legally permissible service from each and every doctor? Either way, someone's liberty will be restricted.”

 Collette goes on to say, “If the law compels physicians to provide treatments in conflict with their conscience, the freedom of a physician to practice medicine in accordance with his conscience is diminished.”

 In spite of this, there was a concerted effort a few years to ago to make abortion training mandatory within all physician obstetrical-gynecological training programs. The reason? The number of physicians willing to do abortions has been dropping dramatically over the past 10 years. This was a thinly veiled attempt to prop up the number of Planned Parenthood clinics who do abortions with a fresh crop of newly abortion-trained physicians. Who cared what the doctors in training really thought or felt about the procedure? So, let’s make it mandatory.

 Then the mayor of New York City got in on the action a few years ago. In 2002, Mayor Michael Bloomberg made abortion training mandatory in all NYC OB-GYN medical training programs. There was a conscience clause written into the program, so that those who opposed it could opt out, but the assumption made by the program was that all residents would train unless the residents actively chose to opt out of the training.6

If there is a common theme running through these situations, it is the insistence by some politicians in particular that health care providers simply comply with patient demands, regardless of any conflicting demands or issues of the health care providers' consciences.

 Why isn’t the ACLU fighting for the rights of the healthcare professional? Here the ACLU is showing its true colors. They believe the right of woman to access “reproductive health care” trumps all other rights, obviously including the rights of the conscience of the healthcare provider, and the right to life for the unborn child.

 The movement is snowballing. In November 2005, Walgreens placed four Illinois pharmacists on unpaid leave after they refused to fill prescriptions for all contraceptives. This was because Walgreens believed the pharmacists were violating Governor Rod Blagojevich’s emergency ruling that pharmacist had to prescribe EC if asked to do so. The American Center for Law and Justice filed a suit against the chain on behalf of the pharmacists in January.

 Illinois state lawmakers responded to Governor Blagojevich in January with three proposed bills that would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill EC prescriptions that violate their personal or religious beliefs. "We're not saying take it off the market," said Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Greenville, a pharmacist himself. "We're just saying for those pharmacists who have a religious problem with it, don't make us fill it."

 What was Governor Blagojevich’s reply to this challenge? “Now, I understand that several bills have been introduced that would overturn my executive order to protect women's reproductive freedoms," Blagojevich said in his State of the State address. "So let me make something else very clear -- if any of those bills reach my desk, they are dead on arrival." Blagojevich again conveniently ignores the freedoms for the pharmacists in his state.

 Even more recently in Massachusetts the state Board of Pharmacy jumped into action, ordering Wal-Mart to stock the morning after pill. Wal-Mart had previously refused to stock this medication nationally since 1999 as a company policy.

 One of the successful plaintiffs in the Massachusetts suit, Dr. Rebekah Gee, summed up her case by asserting, "My patients should not have to shop around." As Jonathan Imbody of the Christian Medical Association writes, “Abortion advocates have found yet another new right in the Constitution--the right not to have to shop around.”

 There has been another switch in tactics that the “women’s rights” advocates are now using. There is also a concerted push for over the counter (OTC) status for EC. It is an additional end-around to the tactic of forcing pharmacists or doctors to prescribe the medication, or to make it available. Although “Plan B” (the most popular form of EC) is a larger dose of a progesterone-like hormone (levonorgestrel) that is in all other prescribing circumstances considered a prescription medication. It seems to be of no concern to them that OTC hormonal medications are potentially dangerous, have otherwise only been prescribed by licensed physicians, and have not been used or even studied extensively for minors.

 Can you see how the ACLU has a very selective filter regarding rights? Obviously this is done at the expense of the rights of the poor physician or pharmacist or physician who believes they are ending a human life.

 The real question is just whose human rights are being stomped on here?

Bradley G. Beck, MD, MS