Conscience Clauses on the Rise

CNN has a not especially sympathetic report on the growth of "conscience clauses" in the health care industry. Here's an excerpt:

In Congress and states nationwide, anti-abortion activists are broadening efforts to support hospitals, doctors and pharmacists who -- citing moral grounds -- want to opt out of services linked to abortion and emergency contraception.

A little-noticed provision cleared the House of Representatives last week that would prohibit local, state or federal authorities from requiring any institution or health care professional to provide abortions, pay for them, or make abortion-related referrals, even in cases of rape or medical emergency.

In Mississippi, a bill became law in July that admirers and critics consider the nation's most sweeping "conscience clause." It allows all types of health care workers and facilities to refuse performing virtually any service they object to on moral or religious grounds.

And in states across the country, anti-abortion organizations and a group called Pharmacists for Life are encouraging pharmacists to refuse to distribute emergency contraceptives, which they consider a potential form of abortion.

"We've seen increasing organization and networking to get more pharmacists to refuse to provide EC -- not just in the Bible Belt but all over," said Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "It's part of the anti-choice arrogance in which they believe they have the right to impose their ideology on everyone else."

I've addressed this issue previously on this blog. The 20th century offered a parade of harms spawned by the failure to assume moral responsibility for one's conduct, a failure exacerbated by the rise and narrow conception of professional roles. As such, it should not be tremendously controversial to ensure that professionals maintain their moral agency. It should be of far greater public concern that Ms. Feldt and Planned Parenthood would require that professionals forfeit their own moral identities whenever they enter the marketplace and function simply as empty vessels for whatever goods or services are permitted by law and desired by the consumer. Perhaps even more remarkable is that Ms. Feldt can complain about the imposition of ideology with a straight face.

Rob