Service, not Servitude
A bill to protect religious liberty and rights of conscience in the areas of health care and medical and scientific research as it pertains to employment, education and training, and participating in health care services and to the purchasing of or providing for the
purchase of health insurance; to provide immunity from liability; and to prescribe penalties and provide remedies. Text of Bill
The Philippines Department of Health has signed the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 10354, otherwise known as the “Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law of 2012” (RPRH Act of 2012). The regulations have not yet been posted on the Department’s website. [DOH News Release]
The regulations will have an immediate impact on the exercise of freedom of conscience by health care workers. According to news reports, those who are privately employed must complete an affidavit setting out what they object to and why, and must post a prominent notice of what “reproductive health services” they will not provide. Government health care workers will apparently be forced to use some kind of civil service process to obtain approval for the exercise of freedom of conscience.
DOH Assistant Secretary Dr. Madeleine Valera stated that the law would be applied “liberally,” by which she appears to have meant that freedom of conscience will be restricted as much as possible so that purported “human rights” would be protected. [Sun Star]
The National Assembly of Pakistan has unanimously passed a private member bill sponsored by Dr. Attiya Inayatullah the Reproductive Health care and Rights Bill, 2013. One of the concerns underlying passage of the bill was the high rate of mortality associated with childbirth. [Daily Mail]
The Arkansas Legislature is considering HB 98, the Health Care Freedom of Conscience Act, which provides protection for freedom of conscience for individuals and institutions with respect to artificial birth control, assisted reproductive technologies, human embryonic stem-cell research; and contraceptive sterilization. Meanwhile, Dr. Pegge Bell, Director of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing at the University
of Arkansas, opposes the exercise of freedom of conscience as a violation of the principles of healthcare. Dr. Bell suggests that objectors might be able to negotiate arrangements, but should otherwise change specialities, or, presumably, leave the profession. [NWA]
By a vote of 118-42, the Missouri House of Representatives passed HB 457. A second vote is required before the bill can move to the state senate for consideration. The bill provides protection for individuals and institutions with respect to abortion, sterilization that is not medically necessary, embryonic stem cell research, assisted reproduction and contraception. [Associated Press]