Protection of Conscience Project News
Service, not Servitude
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.
The following is the protection of conscience provision found in an assisted suicide
law. There is limited protection provided for health care facilities, which can prohibit their physicians from prescribing lethal medications for residents who wish to use them on their premises, but not from prescribing them for those who intend to use them elsehwere. [Protection of conscience provision]
The Act legalizing abortion in Uruguay, passed in the fall of 2012, includes two protection of conscience provisions.
Section 10 provides protection for existing health care institutions that are part of the National Integrated Health System if they had ideological objections to abortion at the time the law was enacted. They are not required to provide abortion, but “may” reach an agreement with the Ministry of Public Health to arrange for their patients to have abortions elsewhere. If “may” is understood to mean that such arrangements are optional, institutional freedom of conscience will not be compromised. However, it appears that all hospitals that are part of the National Integrated Health System that are opened from this point on will be required to provide abortions.
Section 11 allows conscientious objection by health care workers, but this is limited by the meaning given to “health” in Section 6A.
[Protection of concience provisions: Spanish/English]