Category: Countries

New HHS office that enforces health workers’ religious rights received 300 complaints in a month

The Hill

Jessie Hellman

More than 300 individuals filed a complaint with the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department over the last month, saying that their religious or conscience rights have been violated by their employer, a state or state agency or a health provider.

The complaints follow the creation of a new division within HHS that focuses on enforcing those rights and investigating complaints from individuals who say their rights have been violated.

For example, a nurse could file a complaint against their employer if they are coerced into participating in an abortion or disciplined for refusing to do so . . . [Full Text]

World medical body pushes back on conscience fight

The Catholic Register

Michael Swan

The international society of Catholic doctors is using Canada as an example of what can go wrong when doctors are forced to refer for abortion.

The World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations is drawing on Canada’s experience to counter proposals before the World Medical Association to adopt forced referrals and signal ethical acceptance for euthanasia. . . [Full Text]

Pregnant women in rural B.C. urged to leave town to deliver

40% of women in rural Canada have to drive at least 1 hour away for maternity services

CBC News

Briar Stewart

For pregnant women in Fort Nelson, B.C., part of the prenatal routine includes agreeing not to have their babies in the northern community.

“Due to staffing issues, we are unable to conduct safe obstetric care,” says the memo from the health centre.

An official with Northern Health, which oversees health centres in the region, says while physicians and staff are equipped to respond to  an “unplanned delivery,” women are advised to leave up to a month before their due date because “the safety of both the mother and the baby must come first.”

Fort Nelson, a community of 3,500, is one of dozens of rural communities in Canada where maternity services have been eliminated, in part because of the ongoing struggle to recruit and retain doctors in remote parts of the country.

The lack of intrapartum care means some women have to travel hundreds of kilometres and pay thousands of dollars to have their babies, even though health experts say long-distance delivery can come with greater health risks. . . [Full Text]

Why we must protect the conscience rights of medical professionals

Is it really such a radical idea to think healthcare professionals should not be forced to help in procedures to which they morally object?

Catholic Herald

Prof. Andrew Tettenborn

Just over three years ago, two devout Catholic midwives lost an important claim in the courts. Disciplined for declining to make arrangements for abortions in a Glasgow maternity ward, they sued, saying that the Abortion Act’s conscience clause allowed them to refuse to participate in the procedure. The Supreme Court, combining an impressive capacity for casuistry with a matching unconcern for moral consistency, chose to define “participation” as meaning carrying out the abortion, and nothing more. Organising, managing and aiding other people to do it was quite different; there was no right to refuse to do it.

The point matters a great deal. Many NHS hospitals now put abortion and other controversial procedures out to tender (a matter itself a cause for concern, though not here), and so organisation rather than participation is increasingly what will be demanded from often unwilling staff. . . [Full Text]

Munich university remembers executed students: “Law changes, the conscience doesn’t”

Ludwig Maximilians Universität München

Justice, freedom, human rights, moral consciousness, courage, willingness to accept responsibility – what do these values and virtues cost? . . . On 18 February 1943, Hans and Sophie Scholl were arrested by the Gestapo, after they had scattered copies of their latest leaflet around the Main University Building. Further arrests were made in the days following and, in several separate trials, the leading members of the White Rose were convicted by an inhuman regime and put to death. [Full text]