Category: United States

Bill would make Catholic hospitals tell patients about options elsewhere

Chicago Tribune

Manya Brachear Pashman

Angela Valavanis, shown with her children Ariana, 5, left, and Dylan, 23 months, and husband Stel, learned minutes before Dylan’s delivery that her hospital would not be able to provide the tubal ligation she had requested months earlier in the event of a cesarean section because the procedure would violate Catholic teachings.

A measure before Illinois lawmakers would require Roman Catholic hospitals to tell patients they can go elsewhere for birth control, certain medical procedures and other health care choices that violate church teachings.

The proposal would amend the state’s Health Care Right of Conscience Act, which generally allows workers and institutions to deny services for religious and ethical reasons. And while it would apply to all hospitals in Illinois, it’s particularly relevant for Catholic hospitals, which handle more than 1 in 4 admissions statewide. . . [Full text]

Agreement reached on conscience rights

Catholic Conference of Illinois

Last month, we posted about an attack on the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act in the form of Senate Bill 1564.

The Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act allows medical personnel and health care facilites to avoid participating in medical procedures — such as abortion, sterilization, and certain end-of-life care — that violate their beliefs and values.

The original form of Senate Bill 1564 easily passed a Democratic-led Senate committee on a 7-3 vote.

The Catholic Conference of Illinois and the Illinois Catholic Health Association worked to modify this bill to protect the conscience protections of doctors, hospitals, and health care facilities. The original  form of Senate Bill 1564 mandated referrals and had a section stating that if there is a delay in the provision of health care there is no conscience right. We could not allow that to happen, especially since the sponsor of the legislation had the votes to pass SB 1564 in its original form after it had passed committee.

We reached an agreement with the bill’s sponsor that reflects the current medical practices in Catholic hospitals. Catholic health care ethicists and Catholic hospital lawyers participated in the negotiations.

We are now taking a neutral stance regarding Senate Bill 1564. A neutral stance means that we neither support nor oppose the bill.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE AMENDED SB 1564 REQUIRES NO ONE TO TELL PEOPLE WHERE ABORTIONS CAN BE OBTAINED.

Alabama House Bill 491 (2015)

Health Care Rights of Conscience Act

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT

Relating to health care, to allow health care providers to decline to perform any health care service that violates their conscience and provide remedies for persons who exercise that right and suffer consequences as a result. [Full text]

Pharmacists discouraged from providing meds for lethal injection

CNN

Debra Goldschmidt

CNN)The American Pharmacists Association is discouraging its members from participating in executions. On Monday, the group voted at its annual meeting to adopt a ban as an official policy, stating that “such activities are fundamentally contrary to the role of pharmacists as healthcare providers.”

This bolsters the association’s previous positions to oppose the use of the term “drug” for chemicals used in lethal injection and to oppose laws that require or prohibit pharmacists from participation in lethal injection cases. . . [Full text]

 

Bill OK’d by committee would give more information to patients

The State Journal Register

Doug Finke, State Capitol Bureau

A bill designed to ensure patients are given treatment information when their health-care providers invoke the state’s Right of Conscience Act was approved by the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday.

Under Senate Bill 1564, health-care providers would be required to establish written protocols that provide patients with information about the treatment options available and how they can get access to those options. [Full text]