President Obama's Secretary for Health and Human Services, Kathleen
Sebelius, issued new regulations on Feb. 17, canceling out numerous
conscience protections for health care workers who have moral or
religious objections to certain procedures.
The new rules claim to leave in place the protections for health care
providers who oppose abortion and sterilization.
However, they remove
many other protections for caregivers, including those who are morally
opposed to providing services such as in vitro fertilization,
contraception – including chemical contraceptives that can cause an
abortion – and facilitating sexual practices they consider wrong.
In her report describing the changes, Sebelius criticizes the
Bush-era regulations, which clarified the rights of many conscientious
objectors to opt of procedures, as “unclear and potentially overly broad
in scope.”
Sebelius acknowledged in the final report that “a substantial number
of comments in opposition to rescinding the 2008 Final Rule maintained
that Roman Catholic hospitals would have to close, that rescission of
the rule would limit access to pro-life counseling, and that providers
would either leave the health care industry or choose not to enter it.”
The secretary is a professed Catholic herself, although her local
ordinary Archbishop Joseph Naumann advised her not to receive Holy
Communion in the Church, due to her strong and continued support of
abortion.
In her Feb. 17 report, Sebelius sought to respond to Catholic health
workers' concerns by noting that “under this partial rescission of the
2008 Final Rule, Roman Catholic hospitals will still have the same
statutory protections afforded to them as have been for decades.”
However, it was precisely in order to solidify those decades-old
“statutory protections” in significant ways, that the 2008 rule was made
in the first place.
“The Department supports the longstanding federal health care
provider conscience laws,” the secretary continued, “and with this Final
Rule provides a clear process to enforce those laws.”
The purpose of the 2008 rule, however, was not simply to reiterate
the content of existing laws, but to clarify how they should be applied,
and to provide explicitly for their enforcement.
For this reason, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops had
praised the previous rule as a “much-needed implementation of
long-standing laws” – saying it clarified many “undefined terms” that
allowed state and local governments to “attack conscience rights as
though they do not exist.”
With those “much-needed” rules and clarifications gone, Catholic
hospitals and health care workers may find themselves facing difficult
situations without explicit protections.
Sebelius pointed out that her department would still be willing to receive and consider their complaints.
The portion of the 2008 rule that enables the Office for Civil Rights
to investigate complaints from conscientious medical objectors is
“being retained,” she said.
“Under this Final Rule,” she offered, “health care providers who
believe their rights were violated will now be able to file a complaint
with the Department’s Office for Civil Rights in order to seek
enforcement of those rights.”
Dr. J. Scott Ries, a board-certified family physician and a vice
president of ministry at the 16,000-member Christian Medical
Association, said the rule change touched on areas of “critical concern
for pro-life patients, healthcare professionals and institutions.”
“The administration has made changes in a vital civil rights
regulation without evidence or justification,” Dr. Ries said.
He
criticized the regulatory action as a move that “diminishes the civil
rights that protect conscientious physicians and other healthcare
professionals against discrimination.”