Parts of a new law passed in North Carolina strengthen the state’s protection of conscience law for health care workers. The revisions extend protection against coerced participation in abortion to nurses and other health care workers and to health care institutions other than hospitals. [CWN]
Category: Abortion
Ireland: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013
Protection of Conscience Provision
The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 became law in July, 2013. The protection of conscience provision is provided here in full within an abbreviated presentation of the entire act. Paraphrased parts of the bill are in italics. Mouseover the red text to see government comments that were provided in the “heads of bill” relevant to the text. Links to other information relevant to the law are in the first column to the right.
Proposed Rwandan law would legalize abortion, make conscientious objection illegal
Law Governing Reproductive Health
After its approval by the Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Rwandan Member of Parliament Ignatienne Nyirarukundo has brought a proposed Rwandan reproductive health law before the Rwandan Chamber of Deputies for consideration. The bill is reported to have been initiated five years ago, and is apparently an improved version of a bill that was criticized for violating human rights, contradicting the Rwandan Constitution, and for being so badly translated that its provisions were sometimes given different meanings in different languages. That bill was rejected by the Rwandan senate.
Nonetheless, the English text of the present bill3 continues to suffer from defects like incoherence and inconsistency that may be the product of poor translation. In addition, it include provisions that are likely to be controversial for various reasons. [Full text]
Abortion in “rural” British Columbia
Researchers include city of 85,000 as part of “rural” B.C.
Abstract:
Two recent research papers based on a 2011 survey of physicians providing abortion in British Columbia assert that “rural abortion services are disappearing in Canada.” However, what the papers contribute to an understanding of the “barriers” to abortion services in rural British Columbia is doubtful, for two reasons. First: the analytical structure proposed (the urban-rural dichotomy as defined by the authors) is inadequate. Second: the authors ignore the significance of an important variable: the nature of the facilities or institutions where abortions are performed. Concerns expressed about “access” to abortion are frequently accompanied by demands that freedom of conscience for health care workers should be suppressed. Given the weaknesses noted above, the authors would have been hard-pressed to justify such a suggestion. To their credit, they do not do so.
[Full Text]
Seattle Times issues warning: Catholic hospitals won’t provide assisted suicide, abortion
An editorial in the Seattle Times has expressed support for the decision of Jay Inslee of Washington State to direct the state health department to update its rules about health care provider ownership, facilities and services. The problem, in the Times view, is that about 1/3 of the state’s hospital beds are now in Catholic institutions, which refuse to provide abortion or assisted suicide, and that Catholic influence in the state is increasing. By the year’s end, according to the editorial, Catholic facilities may control half the hospital beds. “Concerns center on the possibility of patients losing access or referrals to the full range of legal reproductive and end-of-life services banned by religious doctrine.”