The UN Human Rights Commison has issued a document that purports to base the restriction or suppression of freedom of conscience among health care workers on human rights claims. Technical guidance on the application of a human rights based approach to the implementation of policies and programmes to reduce preventable maternal morbidity and mortality. Section 30 of the document calls for changing laws and policies that allow conscientious objection “to hinder women’s access to a full range of services.” Section 61 states that laws, polices and regulations that allow “unregulated conscientious objection” should be changed, and “newly established obligations of providers and rights of individual users should be disseminated.” The resolution was endorsed by New Zealand, Burkina Faso, and Colombia and enumerates access to abortion among “sexual and reproductive health rights.” 20 of the 47 council members opposed the text. The UN General Assembly will consider adopting it later in October. [CFAM]
Appeal of Missouri court ruling on HHS birth control mandate
U.S. District Judge Carole Jackson of St. Louis has dismissed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate brought by Frank O’Brien and his company, O’Brien Industrial Holdings LLC of St. Louis. The suit challenged the federal government regulation that requires O’Brien to provide employees with insurance for contraceptives, embryocides and surgical sterilization. A Catholic, O’Brien objects to facilitating any of the services for religious reasons. The judge ruled that the indirect support did not substantially burden the free exercise of O’Brien’s religious beliefs. Lawyer Frank Manion of the American Center for Law and Justice has filed an appeal on behalf of O’Brien. [ACLJ comment][St. Louis-Post Dispatch][Religion Dispatches]
U.S. Catholic Medical Association focuses on freedom of conscience
600 Catholic physicians attending a four day conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, were warned that they are practising medicine in an increasingly toxic culture and that even physicians who do not follow Church teaching may be forced to do things that they believe to be wrong. Bishop Robert Vasa of Santa Rosa, California told the audience that “American Catholic physicians, have to wake up to the fact that they can no longer presume that their individual choices about how they practice medicine in this country will be respected.” John Brehany, the CMA’s executive director, described the current situation in the United States as a “very dangerous crisis.” [NCR]
Illinois court rules in favour of pharmacist freedom of conscience
Two pharmacists have won an appeal against a 2005 executive order issued by the Governor of Illinois that required all pharmacies to fill prescriptions for the morning after pill. The appeals court upheld a lower court injunction based on the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act.
An Illinois appeals court has ruled in favor of two pharmacists who objected to having to provide emergency contraception on religious grounds, setting a precedent their lawyer hopes will protect others from judicial or state sanctions. [San Francisco Chronicle]
Spanish physicians urged to disobey law on treating immigrants
According to a law that went into effect on 1 September, Spanish physicians may not provide health care for undocumented migrants except in cases of emergency, pregnancy, or delivery. The Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (SEMFyC), supported by the Spanish Medical Colleges, holds that the law is contrary to medical ethics and is advising physicians to become “conscientious objectors” to the law. [Hastings Center Bioethics Forum]