An article in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle discusses the impact of the current debate on "conscience rules", as we all await the Obama Administration's plans for repealing President Bush's last-minute policy change. Two things seem to be coming clear: 1) because of the debate, many workers are needlessly worried about losing rights of conscience that will still be protected – as they were before December when the rule was enacted – by the Civil Rights Act; and 2) the current new rule may be so broad it creates more problems of conscience than it solves.
Jon O'Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, said his organization wholeheartedly supports long-held protections for individual health care providers to recuse themselves based on conscience.
But, he said, giving entire hospitals or health care systems the blanket protection called for under the Bush plan threatens the freedom of nurses or doctors to give services they believe patients need.
…
"They're trying to say the institution has a conscience," O'Brien said. "But by saying that, they're denying the conscience of doctors, nurses and patients."
There is still the question of whether President Obama will replace his repeal of the Bush rule with something new of substance, or simply let stand the protections that already exist. Even a symbolic reassurance of worker protection may be helpful in easing the anxiety of individual healthcare providers. Stay tuned.
