The American Bar Association (ABA) will vote on a proposed resolution that would deny healthcare providers the right to make medical judgments based on religious beliefs, according to Family Research Council (FRC), who recently filed a friend-to-the-court brief in a U.S. Supreme Court seeking to reverse a ruling that required Catholic Charities of Sacramento to offer contraception prescriptions for its employees.
Nurses have refused to issue contraceptives at the clinics due to moral or religious beliefs. For those who believe that life begins at conception, when the sperm fertilizes the egg, the effects of the contraceptives amount to abortion.
However, the California Supreme Court’s ruling does not allow Catholic Charities to be exempt from a law requiring family planning clinics to offer a range of family planning methods including contraceptives.
"At its core this proposal is a direct attempt to discriminate against faith-based medical facilities and professionals who hold the belief that abortion, assisted suicide and contraception are morally wrong. This is just another example of the judicial activism sweeping our country's legal establishment," said FRC President Tony Perkins in a statement.
FRC's Senior Legal Advisor Pat Trueman believes that if passed, the resolution will strip a health worker’s right to exercise his con
"Hiding behind the face of 'patients rights,' the American Bar Association's proposal flies in the face of its purpose to advance individual rights and responsibilities by stifling a doctor's constitutional right to listen to his or her own conscience when it comes to performing an abortion,” he said.
Trueman concluded, "Each year nearly 58 million Americans seek medical advice from faith-based healthcare providers and this proposal, if passed, would take away their right to receive the care they deserve. Neither the California Supreme Court nor the ABA has the right to sweep 20 years of government sustained 'conscience' protection under the rug in order to advance a pro-abortion agenda."
