Rescinding Provider 'Conscience' Rule Would Be 'Insult' To Religion, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 05 Mar 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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Repealing the HHS provider "conscience" rule would be "an insult to religious faith and to pro-lifers of no religious faith who see the danger of according one category of human life less value than another," syndicated columnist Cal Thomas writes in a Washington Times opinion piece in response to the Obama administration's announcement that it intends to rescind the policy. Thomas writes, "Why do social liberals say they want to make abortion 'safe, legal and rare,' but then spend all their time on the first two and none on the third?" Thomas argues that it is "relatively simple" to make abortions rare by showing the "abortion-minded woman a sonogram of the fetus she is about to destroy." He cites a 2005 survey from Care Net -- a network of about 1,000 antiabortion crisis pregnancy centers in the U.S. and Canada -- that found "72% of women who were initially 'strong leaning' toward abortion" decided against having an abortion after viewing an ultrasound. Thomas continues that this is not "depriving a woman of her 'choice.' It is providing more information so that her choice will be fully informed."

Thomas claims that repealing the rule would "allow hospitals to require" health workers who oppose abortion to participate in abortion services, adding that those who argue in favor of rescinding the rule say that it would apply to people who dispense contraception. "These are arguments we've heard before," Thomas writes, adding, "In my view, far fewer people oppose contraception than oppose abortion. Besides, one prevents conception and the other kills something that is living, and, if left to be born, something that will breathe." He continues that any health worker who does not want to provide contraception "can ask another store employee to do it" but that "[y]ou can't bring an aborted baby back to life, even if a woman later regrets the decision." Thomas writes, "To repeal the conscience rule is an affront to every American who believes government ought to be under God, not play God" (Thomas, Washington Times, 3/4).

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