{"id":10437,"date":"2021-01-22T19:08:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-23T03:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=10437"},"modified":"2021-02-04T19:30:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T03:30:30","slug":"equality-acts-attack-on-religious-liberty-medical-conscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=10437","title":{"rendered":"Equality Act\u2019s Attack on Religious Liberty, Medical Conscience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

National Review<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reproduced with permission<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wesley J. Smith<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

President Biden said<\/a> during the campaign that he supported the Equality Act<\/a>, which is being sold as a means of guaranteeing equality for LGBT people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it does more than that. It would destroy medical conscience by removing existing protections that permit doctors and nurses to refuse participation in abortion, and it would gut the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Charlotte Lozier Institute\u2019s associate scholar Richard Doerflinger explains in a white paper he authored on the bill. From \u201cThe \u2018Equality Act\u2019: Threatening Life and Equality<\/a>:\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Equality Act\u2019s new freestanding ban on pregnancy discrimination . . . adds the new requirement for women to receive \u201ctreatment\u201d for pregnancy that is as \u201cfavorable\u201d as treatment for any other \u201cphysical condition\u201d . . . . It provides rules of construction indicating that the new requirement should be interpreted as broadly as possible. . . . And it negates the existing religious freedom law that allows believers to seek an exemption from such requirements based on sincere religious beliefs such as respect for human life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the end of medical conscience<\/a>, an aspect of freedom of religion that permits doctors and nurses to refuse to participate in the termination of pregnancies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not all. The bill guts the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as a defense against acts deemed discriminatory in the bill. Among other wrongs, this could force Catholic hospitals to permit sterilization, contraception, abortion, and transgender surgeries on premises despite their being prohibited by Catholic moral teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly the ACLU once understood the importance of protecting Catholic hospitals from such impositions. It now supports the Equality Act:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is notable that in 1992 the ACLU recognized a religious hospital\u2019s right to decline involvement even in contraception. This is also a service related to pregnancy, so would presumably be required of religious hospitals under the Equality Act \u2013 as would removal of a woman\u2019s healthy uterus, surgically sterilizing her, to facilitate her transition to a male gender identity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As noted above, the Equality Act\u2019s mandates and its elimination of any defense under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act would also reverse the outcome of Supreme Court cases on the Affordable Care Act, subjecting the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious entities to a mandate for contraceptive and early abortifacient  coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the whole paper. It is a sobering assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Equality Act is a blatant act of cultural imperialism and a high-priority agenda item for the new administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress. So much for \u201cunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National Review Reproduced with permission Wesley J. Smith President Biden said during the campaign that he supported the Equality Act, which is being sold as a means of guaranteeing equality for LGBT people. But it does more than that. It would destroy medical conscience by removing existing protections that permit doctors and nurses to refuse … Continue reading “Equality Act\u2019s Attack on Religious Liberty, Medical Conscience”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,2413,4,650,7,334,28],"tags":[3972,362],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-10437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-body-reconfiguration","category-commentary","category-contraception","category-law","category-sterilization","category-usa","tag-equality-act","tag-wesley-j-smith"],"yoast_head":"\r\nEquality Act\u2019s Attack on Religious Liberty, Medical Conscience - Protection of Conscience Project News<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Equality Act is a blatant act of cultural imperialism that will suppresses freedom of conscience in health care.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=10437\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Equality Act\u2019s Attack on Religious Liberty, Medical Conscience - Protection of Conscience Project News\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Equality Act is a blatant act of cultural imperialism that will suppresses freedom of conscience in health care.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=10437\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Protection of Conscience Project News\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ConscienceProject\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-23T03:08:00+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-05T03:30:30+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Project Administrator\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@consciencepro\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@consciencepro\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Project Administrator\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=10437#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=10437\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Project Administrator\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8634801dcca60ff6362f6b1bb2d778fa\"},\"headline\":\"Equality Act\u2019s Attack on Religious Liberty, Medical Conscience\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-23T03:08:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-05T03:30:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=10437\"},\"wordCount\":427,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Equality Act\",\"Wesley J. 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