NEW YORK – In Congress and states nationwide, anti-abortion activists are broadening efforts to support hospitals, doctors and pharmacists who – citing moral grounds – want to opt out of services linked to abortion and emergency contraception.
A little-noticed provision cleared the House of Representatives last week that would prohibit local, state or federal authorities from requiring any institution or health care professional to provide abortions, pay for them, or make abortion-related referrals, even in cases of rape or medical emergency.
In Mississippi, a bill became law in July that admirers and critics consider the nation’s most sweeping “conscience clause.” It allows all types of health care workers and facilities to refuse to perform virtually any service they object to on moral or religious grounds.
And in states across the country, anti-abortion organizations and a group called Pharmacists for Life are encouraging pharmacists to refuse to distribute emergency contraceptives, which they consider a potential form of abortion.
“We’ve seen increasing organization and networking to get more pharmacists to refuse to provide EC – not just in the Bible Belt but all over,” said Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “It’s part of the anti-choice arrogance in which they believe they have the right to impose their ideology on everyone else.”
Karen Brauer, president of Pharmacists for Life, was fired by Kmart in 1996 for refusing to dispense a birth-control drug. She believes momentum now favors her movement.
“More people, including pharmacists, are becoming informed how certain drugs operate – and those who want to avoid ending the life of a human being would avoid those drugs,” she said.
Brauer, who lives in Lawrenceburg, Ind., and works at a drugstore in Ohio, hopes more states will emulate Mississippi, South Dakota and Arkansas by specifying that pharmacists, as well as doctors, have the right to withhold services on moral grounds. She does not believe there should be any obligation to refer rebuffed customers to another pharmacist who would fill their prescription.
“Forced referral is stupid,” she said. “If we’re not going to kill a human being, we’re not going to help the customer go do it somewhere else.”
At the federal level, abortion rights groups are alarmed by the provision that cleared the House last week, broadening protections for hospitals and insurers that seek to avoid any involvement with abortions. The provision would prevent government officials from using any coercive means – such as a funding cutoff or permit denial – to ensure abortion-related services are available.
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