Category: News

The Conservative Party’s stance on conscience rights and free votes should worry progressive voters

Xtra

Tracey Lindeman

Ah, the freedom of conscience.

There it is, the number-one freedom in the Canadian charter: the right to move through this country in ways that don’t compromise your values or beliefs. This freedom underlies other significant parts of the charter, namely the right to bodily autonomy and equality, or sections seven and 15, respectively. 

Who would want to live in a place where we couldn’t make personal decisions about our own bodies, decisions that our own consciences support? Say you want to abort an embryo or fetus growing inside you—that’s your right. Or say you have a terminal illness or awful quality of life, and you want to die on your own terms. That’s your right, too. 

Except, in Conservative leader Erin O’Toole’s vision, in these scenarios it’s the doctors exercising their consciences, not the patients. . . continue reading

Abortion Is No Longer a Crime in Mexico. But Will Doctors Object?

Another battle looms over whether public hospitals will be required to offer the procedure.

New York Times

Natalie Kitroeff, Oscar Lopez

MEXICO CITY — As soon as the nurse found out that she had an abortion at home, Fernanda García knew she was in danger. The nurse began yelling that she was a criminal, that what she had done was wrong, that she would be sent to jail. . . .

Now, Mexico’s Supreme Court has ruled that abortion is not a crime, setting a national precedent that puts the country on the path to becoming the most populous nation in Latin America to allow the procedure. Thousands of people have faced criminal investigations in recent years for ending their pregnancies, and the court’s unanimous decision last week should enable them to get any charges dropped, legal experts said. . . continue reading

As vaccine mandates multiply, so do requests for religious exemptions

The Buffalo News

Jay Tokasz

A couple dozen people asked the Buffalo Diocese for letters supporting a religious exemption from a Covid-19 vaccination.

The University at Buffalo and other area colleges and universities granted several hundred exemptions from their mandatory vaccine policy for students, mostly for faith reasons.

A national religious liberty organization is threatening to sue New York State over a vaccine mandate for health care workers that doesn’t include a religious exemption. . . . continue reading

Push for conscientious objection ruled out

The Advocate

Adam Holmes

Tasmanians will not be able to claim “conscientious objector” status should they require a mandatory vaccination for work in healthcare settings, Premier Peter Gutwein has confirmed. . . continue reading

Catholic doctors cannot refuse COVID-19 vaccines on moral or religious grounds in Tasmania

The Examiner

Isabel Bird

Conservative catholic doctors, nurses and other health workers who oppose mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations on moral or “conscience grounds” will not be allowed to refuse the vaccine in Tasmania.

The state government, and other jurisdictions, are making vaccinations mandatory for all health workers in the public and private healthcare systems, leading the Catholic Medical Association of Australia (CMAA) to call for the right to a “conscientious objection to vaccination”.

The association says vaccines can be rejected on moral grounds, and because of a lack of research, testing and knowledge about future side effects, but this in comparison to the views of Catholic Church head Pope Francis who has urged people to get vaccinated, saying that vaccines “bring hope to end the pandemic, but only if they are available to all”. . . . continue reading