President Barack Obama is proposing regulations to strike or weaken current regulations implemented by then-HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt that protect the conscience rights of health care workers. Congress has passed three laws (Church Amendments, Coats Amendment, and the Hyde/Weldon Amendment) over the past 35 years protecting such rights; however, no regulations had ever been implemented until January 20, 2009 when the former administration put into effect regulations to defend the conscience rights of healthcare workers.
Unfortunately, President Obama wants to rescind these regulations and may issue weaker ones in the future. The regulations President Obama is planning to rescind would ensure that programs that receive federal funds, including federal, state and local government programs, do not discriminate against health care workers who object to participating in such practices as abortion and sterilization.
We need you to submit comments to HHS in support of these regulations to enforce current law because groups like Planned Parenthood have supplied thousands of comments to HHS asking them to rescind these pro-conscience regulations. The deadline for submitting comments is April 9, 2009.
In submitting your comments, please provide information to HHS as to your awareness of the conscience protections contained in currently law. For instance, did you know that health care providers -- both persons and organizations -- have conscience protections under federal law? Do you know of a case or cases in which an organization with which you are or were affiliated did not know of these federal rights? Provide examples where a lack of knowledge of conscience rights led to coercion to a violation of conscience.
Describe fully any cases in which you have experienced discrimination against your conscience related to a health procedure, including but not limited to the performance of abortion. Describe fully any instances of which you have direct knowledge in which an organization has been discriminated against by the local, state, or federal government for its refusal to perform or not perform certain medical procedures. Similarly, were either you or your colleagues discriminated against because you were unwilling to perform, participate in, or refer a patient for an abortion?
Please indicate whether public outreach or education programs alone would have been sufficient to prevent the discriminatory behavior in your case. For example, would the organization or person who discriminated against you have complied with the law only if they had been threatened with sanctions?
If you follow the link below, we've provided a sample comment you may use or edit to include your own arguments and experiences.
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