{"id":213613,"date":"2019-11-06T22:13:55","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T04:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=213613"},"modified":"2019-11-07T18:12:05","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T00:12:05","slug":"federal-judge-blocks-trump-conscience-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/federal-judge-blocks-trump-conscience-protections\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge blocks Trump administration’s conscience protections for health care workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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UPDATE, 11\/7<\/strong>: A second federal judge has also blocked the conscience rule from going into effect. The first judge was in New York; the second is in Washington.\u00a0The Hill<\/a> reports, “The latest ruling marks the second time in\u00a0as many days that\u00a0a judge has ruled against the administration’s policy, and ‘provides an extra layer of protection against appeal’ by the Trump administration,\u00a0said Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson.”<\/p>\n

11\/6\/19<\/strong>: On Wednesday<\/a>, the Trump administration’s HHS conscience rule allowing medical providers to decline providing morally-compromising procedures was blocked by federal judge Paul Engelmayer.\u00a0The rule<\/a>, which was originally set to go into effect on July 22, 2019, was delayed until November 22, 2019. It would have valued the rights of those in the medical field by allowing them to opt out of assisting with “abortion, sterilization, euthanasia, and other procedures that would violate their consciences without being subject to discrimination, retribution, or coercion for abiding by their religious beliefs.”<\/p>\n

Judge Engelmayer claimed that the rule<\/a> was “unconstitutional” and “shot through with glaring legal defects.” He further explained<\/a> that it “violated the Constitution\u2019s spending clause by allowing the administration to cut off funds approved by Congress to providers who do not comply with the rule by forcing employees to perform services to which they object.” Planned Parenthood, one of the pro-abortion groups challenging the rule — along with 19 states — soon applauded the decision, tweeting, “Today, a federal district court has BLOCKED the Trump administration from providing health care workers a #LicenseToDiscriminate. Let’s be clear: all patients should be able to access the care they need without judgment or discrimination. Health care is human right.”<\/p>\n

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What both Judge Engelmayer and Planned Parenthood seem to miss is that the First Amendment<\/a>\u00a0doesn’t just guarantee a freedom to worship as we choose, but freedom of religion — and this includes exercising the ability to exclude oneself from an act which Americans believe violates their religious or moral conscience. And abortion (the deliberate killing of humans in the womb) definitely violates many Americans’ religious and moral beliefs and\u00a0is not<\/a> health care<\/a><\/i>, no matter how much\u00a0Planned Parenthood repeats the claim.<\/p>\n

At National Review, Alexandra DeSanctis points out<\/a> that opponents of the conscience protection rule view “moral and religious objections” (scare quotes included) to things like abortion — which kills humans in the womb — with disdain. DeSanctis calls the ruling “harmful legislating from the bench,” adding:<\/p>\n

For those who have deemed certain procedures \u2014 abortion chief among them \u2014 an essential human right, there can be no protest or resistance from Americans who refuse to take part on the grounds that it kills a human being.<\/em><\/p>\n

Such objections are, to the progressive zealot, mere \u201creligious beliefs\u201d that can be mocked in scare quotes and that must be tossed aside when duty calls. Blocking conscience protections such as those implemented by HHS not only allows health-care providers to get away with coercing employees into violating their consciences, but it increases the odds that plenty of Americans \u2014 religious ones, in particular \u2014 will be driven out of the health-care field entirely.<\/em><\/p>\n

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A federal judge has blocked an HHS policy that would\u2019ve protected the First Amendment rights of health-care workers with moral or religious objections to abortion. The decision will allow providers to coerce employees into violating their consciences. https:\/\/t.co\/h31ciEB4Yi<\/a><\/p>\n

— Alexandra DeSanctis (@xan_desanctis) November 6, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n