Posted on 01/23/2009 2:26:45 AM PST by Man50D
HARTFORD, Conn. — Attorneys with the Christian Legal Society and the Alliance Defense Fund filed motions to intervene Wednesday in three lawsuits that seek to invalidate a federal law protecting medical professionals from discrimination because they refuse to participate in abortions. Three pro-life medical associations are seeking to defend the law against challenges by some state officials, Planned Parenthood, and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Medical professionals should not be forced to perform abortions against their conscience. Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and their pro-abortion allies are seeking to punish pro-life medical professionals for their beliefs,” said Litigation Counsel Casey Mattox with CLS’s Center for Law & Religious Freedom. “Far from arguing for ‘choice,’ these lawsuits seek to compel health care workers to perform abortions or face dire consequences.”
“For over three decades, federal law has prohibited recipients of federal grants from forcing medical professionals to participate in abortions. The arguments in the lawsuits themselves demonstrate lack of compliance with these laws and the necessity of the regulation they are challenging,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. Attorney Andrew Knott of Cheshire is assisting as local counsel.
The Christian Medical Association, Catholic Medical Association, and American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, represented by CLS and ADF attorneys, are asking to be allowed to defend the law, 45 CFR Part 88, enacted in December 2008 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Noting a pattern of grant recipients unaware of or flouting existing laws protecting medical professionals’ rights of conscience, HHS enacted the new law to require grantees to certify compliance with them in order to receive funds. The three long-standing statutes are the Church Amendment, the Coats-Snowe Amendment, and the Weldon Amendment.
The three pro-life medical groups point out that denying rights of conscience could harm access to healthcare for all by forcing medical professionals who refuse to perform abortions to either relocate from jurisdictions that force them to do so or leave the profession altogether.
Many of those challenging the HHS law failed in previous efforts to have the Weldon Amendment struck down. CLS and ADF attorneys representing the Christian Medical Association and American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists successfully defended that law (www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4432, www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=3918, and www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=3542).
The briefs in support of the motions to intervene in Connecticut v. United States, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association v. Leavitt, and Planned Parenthood of America v. Leavitt filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut are available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/HHSinterventions.pdf.
Wow, the left is all about tolerance.
No surprise here. At this time the Left (Dims) and the new administration are involved in an all night legislative luv fest where ecstasy pills are be handed out like candy and sodomy is the only method being practiced.
It is never about choice it is about Abortion..
I guess sodomy could be their method of decreasing abortions.
How can Planned Parenthood and the ACLU force doctors to kill unborn babies? It's unthinkable....IMO
Basically, I see abortion clinics and abortion hospitals as becoming similar to nothing more than distributed death camps. Unlike the NAZI death camps, these are distributed among the population in places where they are needed, IMO.
The next incremental step toward a "Culture of Death" would be national health care with euthanasia provisions and denial of access to special equipment such as dialysis machines if you are over the age of 50 or 55 such as in the formerly Great Britain. We must control costs, you know.
Frankly, I don’t think that there could be anything better for the pro-life movement than a photo of doctors in court being prosecuted for NOT performing abortions.
The abortionists scream about how doctors could be prosecuted for performing abortions... Let’s show the media what’s REALLY going on.
Mark
This is where we’re headed with socialized medicine. That and paying for Roseanne’s next tummy tuck...JOhn KErry’s next botox treatment, etc.
The American College of Obstricians and Gynecologists have finalized and published their Ethics Statement #385 which was a large part of the impetus for the new HHS rule.
At my blog, http://www.lifeethics.org/www.lifeethics.org/2009/01/acog-abort-or-refer.html, I’ve quoted the most offensive part: “In resource-poor areas, access to safe and legal reproductive services should be maintained. Providers with moral or religious objections should either practice in proximity to individuals who do not share their views or ensure that referral processes are in place.”
Does this mean that rural docs have to move?
I’ve been told by several pro-abort docs that I should not be allowed to care for women of reproductive age.
ACOG standards are the standards that lawyers apply to all doctors at malpractice. How will I defend against “mental health” claims when I won’t refer?
What about postnatal abortion? Like up to the 225 trimester? Would a bunch of demonrats vote for a law like that just because it says “abortion”?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.