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Loading ...New Bush medical rules could harm LGBT, HIV patients
12.19.2008 3:51pm EST
(Washington) The Bush administration, in its final days, has issued a federal rule reinforcing protections for doctors and other health care workers who refuse to participate in abortions and other procedures because of religious or moral objections.
Critics say the protections are so broad they limit a patient’s right to get care and accurate information.“The refusal clause goes beyond women’s health and a woman’s right to an abortion or birth control,” said openly lesbian Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin.
“Under the new regulations, a doctor may also refuse to treat a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender person. Medical care must be based on science and the patients’ best interest, not the providers’ religious, political, or other philosophical views.”
The Human Rights Campaign also expressed concern over the new Department of Health and Human Services regulations, saying they could be used by a provider to administer an HIV test to a gay patient, and even be exempt from the statutory duty to tell the patient where else he could receive the test.
Under the regulations, a pharmacist could refuse to fill a prescription for hormone therapy if he or she has religious objection to transgender people.
It could also threaten women’s access to comprehensive health care by permitting pharmacists to refuse to dispense contraception even when doing so significantly burdens the patient’s access, or to refuse to participate in an emergency abortion even when the woman’s health is at risk.
The regulations override many state laws protecting patients’ access to medical services.
“These regulations sacrifice patients’ right to medical care, permitting providers to refuse to do their jobs when they choose,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “We ask the Bush administration: what happened to ‘first, do no harm?’ Denying patients legal, safe medical treatments for any reason is simply wrong, and violates the trust that all Americans, regardless of our sexual orientation or gender identity, place in our doctors, nurses, and pharmacists.”
HRC submitted comments objecting to these regulations when they were proposed, asking the administration to amend them to protect patients while preserving religious liberty.
“We are now calling on Congress to take action to eliminate these harmful regulations, and will encourage the incoming HHS leadership to amend them through the regulatory process,” said Solmonese.
January could not come sooner. Down with BUSH already!
How much longer do we have before the bush admin ruins the country anymore, take more and more LGBT rights away wars we shouldn’t be in business’s collapsing does it ever end in the name of his religion. religion and politics should not mix we were once a great nation now just a joke
sad very sad
After closer inspection of this article, it says:
“because of religious or moral objections.”
One does not have to be religious to have a “moral objection”. A “moral objection” is rather vague and can be held by anyone. So if one does not like “people of color”, then they have a moral objection. If one does not like “airhead blondes”, then one has a moral objection. Let us face the fact, even an atheist can have a moral objection. Morals are not the privileged domain of just the religious nutcases and fanatics.
This regulation is too broad and it is too vague, and it houses a great deal of undue and unacceptable discrimination. I think it is designed to make a lot of “unnecessary issues” and “frivolous court cases”, the very things Bush was against to begin with. It is simply designed to make life difficult for Obama and those who did not vote for the Republicans. Unfortunately, it punishes everyone who even passes through the USA.
Too bad he did not get a shoe in the head to knock some sense into him, or better yet, incapacitate him for good.
I agree the government should recognize people’s freedom to exercise their religious beliefs, however I do not agree that it is the government’s place to supersede an employer’s discipline and/or termination of an employee for not fulfilling said employee’s job requirements with the employee’s excuse being “religious freedom”. Further, it is not the government’s place to force health-care companies to provide services it chooses not to provide for what ever reason.
oh … and this announcement from Pres. Bush comes at a time when Canadian officially are close to allowing near-complete comity for physicians trained in the USA.
From: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS159826+23-Sep-2008+PRN20080923 …
“TORONTO, Sept. 23[2008 ed.)] /PRNewswire/ – The HealthForceOntario
Marketing and Recruitment Agency welcomes the new policy enabling licensed doctors in other parts of Canada and the U.S. to practise in Ontario without further training
or additional examinations.” …
*sheesh* !
This is worse than the Warren thing. I am riled at the thought of some backwoods Nursing Assistant, for instance, being legally protected to not only not provide medical services but to do so without reason (let alone (now legally)) not even offer a referral to another healthcare professional.
Especially in America where many healthcare services are paid for by the consumer out-of-pocket. Then again, it is not encumbent upon a store that does not have the merchandise that one may want to refer a person to one of their competitors. But physicians, pharmacist, nurses, etc. are in a different kind of business …
or at least they were …
With this, the M.D. has become less of a status symbol [i.e. "shopkeeps" don't need any education and well, seems now that about time to start referring to physicians and other specialists as Ms./Mrs./or Mr. (it is not illegal to not call them Doctor(s)!)].
I demand that Obama reverse this travesty of justice as soon as he can after he takes office.
This ruling is a complete violation of the people’s civil rights, freedom and personal dignity. Shame on you, Bush many times over!
We are pinning our hopes on you, Obama and we demand a complete reversal on this and every last piece of junk legislation designed to oppress the people, to enshrine antiGlBT discrimination and damage the environment as well. This is Bush’s legacy which he is in great haste to ram through as much of. Obams and company will have to WASTE PRECIOUS MONTHS better spent on moving our country forward just trying to clean up Bush’s “huge pile of legislative manure” that he dumped on top of our country and on top of the new administration.
I can understand, to an extent, protecting a doctor’s right to refuse to perform an abortion because they have a moral objection, or protecting a nurse who refuses to assist in such a procedure. Unless the abortion is a life-saving procedure, a medical professional should be entitled to refuse to participate in it, but they should be obliged to refer that patient elsewhere.
Some people see abortion as the taking of a life, and no one should be compelled to participate in an act they regard as murder. It doesn’t matter if we feel it’s murder or not – we’re not the ones being asked to abort a pregnancy, and we’re not the ones who would have to live with ourselves afterwards.
To some extent, I can also understand protecting the rights of medical professionals who refuse to provide certain other treatment on moral or religious grounds, but there have to be limits and this rule basically eradicates any and all limits.
It doesn’t just protect medical professionals who refuse to treat certain conditions, it allows medical professionals to refuse to treat certain patients, and that’s disgusting (though I can’t say I’m surprised that Bush was behind this vile garbage).
Medicine should always be about treating ailments, not treating people. WHO is being treated should never be relevant. I don’t care if they’re a saint or a pedophile child murderer, the treatment they get from doctors should be the same.
As for pharmacists being permitted to refuse to supply medicine, that’s just idiotic. Maybe pharmacists in America do something different than the ones over here, but those over here simply take the doctor’s prescription and hand over the prescribed medicine. They don’t “treat” anyone. All they do is supply medicine a doctor has seen fit to prescribe. Unless they do not have that medicine in stock, they should not be entitled to refuse to do their job.
This is a final “fuck you” from the Bush Administration to the LGBT community. I can only hope this idiotic piece of human waste and his scumbag cronies disappear from Washington and yield no further political influence once he leaves office. While Obama is no advocate for the gay community, I hope he sees this as the travesty it is. After all, what if doctors suddenly develop a religious or moral objection to treating black people? If so, Obama better hope his Secret Service detail keep him extra safe during his time in office…
Bush is “born again”? Better for all of us if he hadn’t been born at all.
In response to this regulation, it is up to consumers to create an online database searchable by zip code of pharmacies and health care providers who we know can deliver needed services. Those who claim “religious or moral objections” need to be identified so we can avoid their businesses.
This is all such utter nonsense! Does this mean that a Muslim or Orthodox Jewish doctor should be allowed to refuse to treat a female patient? Are hospitals now going to have to compile lists to determine who amongst their staffs are willing to treat which groups of patients? Are patients at risk of receiving inappropriate medical advice slanted towards the doctor’s personal religious preferences? You know, a gay man with testicular cancer may get told he needs total castration, since in the doctor’s mind he doesn’t need his testicles anyway…
I say, with only 31 days left,
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Ding Dong, the Wicked Witch is DEAD.
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Hopefully the next guy will reverse this immediately. This new regulation can cause needless suffering or death to someone, at least until the Supremes kill this evil, wicked and mean regulation, made by the absolute worst leader we have ever had.
Just wondering, if I’m a health care provider and I’m morally opposed to mutilating male babies just because a few bronze age tribes of middle eastern nomads did it, can I refuse to have anything to do with circumcisions based on this new rule?
Just one more thing that the stupid redneck president has done to hinder people. You know I thought the President was suppose to help the people of his country not hold them back. Just another dumb redneck A** that wants to keep people down. The WORST “President” EVER!!! He is a total wast of space and now will collect a pay check for screwing up the economy and peoples freedom to health care and happiness!
President Bush is just a country redneck that has nothing better to do than to put people down. He is the dumbest person on this earth and just a waste of space. Perfect example of why someone should have never been born! WORST President EVER!!