Jon O’Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, said, “The Affordable Care Act [P.L. 111-148] has many positive elements to it. Millions will now be able to access insurance coverage for their health needs and, with the basic level of coverage required under the new law, these newly insured and the millions of those better insured will now have greater access to a wider range of services than ever before. However, the law includes a refusal clause which has been expanded in the past decades to threaten the consciences of both those who seek to receive and those who want to provide services. Advocates of these expansive refusal clauses claim these are necessary to protect conscience rights. Others believe that refusal clauses such as these are simply part of attempts to derail the Affordable Care Act and to curb access to reproductive health care services entirely. Moreover, proposals to expand existing refusal clauses increase threats to the conscience rights of patients and providers by including not just abortion but also family planning services and, should some get their way, any other service deemed ‘unacceptable’ by a tiny minority. In recent years, under the guise of protecting religious freedom and ‘conscience rights’ we have seen a dramatic upswing in attempts to expand the scope of refusal clauses, their application, and the entities able to utilize them. These new, ever-broader refusal clauses do far more than allow those health care professionals or social service providers with conscience objections to opt out. Instead, they are effectively being used as a means to refuse some treatments, medications, benefits, and services to all comers. These expansions have increased not only the services that may be refused — including reproductive health services as well as insurance coverage for those services and even training for medical professionals — but they have also the number of those who may claim these protections.” Mr. O’Brien added, “Almost everyone, including most Catholics, agrees that it is reasonable to allow health care professionals, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists, to opt out of providing essential reproductive health care services and medications to which they conscientiously object … Except in emergency situations, it is reasonable and indeed prudent to allow those who are opposed to abortion to opt out of providing the service. In these situations, women seeking these services should not have to worry about the religious and moral beliefs of their health care providers interfering with the provision of the best possible care.”
William Cox, president and chief executive officer of The Alliance of Catholic Health Care; Jane Belford, chancellor of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington; and Mark Hathaway, MD, MPH, director of Obstetrics and Gynecology Outreach Services for Women’s and Infants’ Services at the Washington Hospital Center, also testified.
Documents
Ranking Member Waxman's Opening Statement, as prepared for delivery
ACLU, November 2, 2011
Center for Reproductive Rights, November 1, 2011
NARAL, November 2, 2011
National Health Law Program, November 2, 2011
National Partnership for Women & Families, November 2, 2011
National Women's Law Center, November 2, 2011
Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, November 2, 2011
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, November 2, 2011
Women's Alliance for Theology, October 31, 2011
Letter from Youth Organizations, November 2, 2011
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