FAQ: Why was the HHS conscience-protecting regulation necessary?
Why was the HHS conscience-protecting regulation necessary?
As the preamble to the conscience regulation notes, it was created in response to the need to enforce existing federal conscience laws protecting health care professionals and institutions from discrimination.
Reports of discrimination and official action by several major medical organizations made clear that existing federal laws protecting the exercise of conscience were not being followed, and that healthcare professionals were not aware of nor were they exercising their rights under the laws.
HHS issued the regulations to raise awareness about the existing laws and to provide victims of discrimination with clear recourse in the event that they experienced discrimination.
Over 35 years of civil rights laws have theoretically protected healthcare professionals from discrimination for conscientious decisions. Some medical groups have enacted statements in line with federal principles. The American Medical Association, for example, states regarding abortion, "Neither physician, hospital, nor hospital personnel shall be required to perform any act violative of personally held moral principles."
Despite these laws and statements, abortion advocates have aggressively moved toward establishing abortion-related mandates-requiring some form of participation in abortion-as standard medical practice. This assault on conscience rights was dramatically highlighted in the radical 2007 ethics statement of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) that required physicians to perform or refer patients for abortions.
The American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG), which certifies Ob-Gyn physicians, subsequently declared in its certification requirements (Bulletin for 2007 Maintenance of Certification) that physicians who violate ACOG ethics positions would be subject to loss of certification.
Because board certification impacts a physician's ability to practice medicine, the combined actions of ACOG and ABOG posed a serious and alarming threat to the medical careers of obstetrician-gynecologists. The Ob-Gyn specialty was already at that time, and still is, facing serious healthcare access shortages due to physicians leaving the field because of skyrocketing malpractice insurance costs.
Faith-based individuals in particular have faced discrimination for following life-affirming standards. Respondents to an informal poll of the 16,000-member Christian Medical Association, for example, revealed that over 40 percent of respondents reported having been pressured to violate ethical standards. Physicians have reported losing positions and promotions based on their life-affirming principles. Medical students have reported opting out of careers in obstetrics and gynecology for fear of discrimination stemming from abortion ideology and pro-life prospective medical students have reported discrimination in application interviews.
