‘Right of Conscience’ Law Puts Women’s Health at Risk

On Thursday, the Bush administration passed a law that offers extended protection not only for medical staff but also for associated personnel who refuse to take part in certain medical procedures, such as abortion, on religious or ethical grounds. Critics are now chiming in, saying that the health of more than 17 million women across the US is highly endangered because of such a measure.

As the Washington Post informs, the new regulation would apply to approximately 584,000 health care facilities, covering their entire staff (including trainees and volunteers) in case something went wrong as they refused to take part in a certain procedure while exercising their “right of conscience.” But the implications of such a regulation are more than meets the eye, critics say.

“There are more than 17 million women across the country who will bear the burden of this harsh regulation, a disproportionate number of them low-income and women of color. Both groups rely heavily on public health programs as their only access to reproductive health services. But the new regulation allows almost any worker in a health care facility - even a receptionist - to turn them away, withhold information, and refuse to refer them elsewhere," Center for Reproductive Rights President, Nancy Northup, said about what the new law might bring about.

Northup also underlined the dangers these same women would be exposed to, other than the immediately medical ones, such as being turned down for racial reasons or because of other types of discrimination. At the same time, their only hope of getting professional medical assistance could also be blown away by logistics and a simple clerk’s arbitrariness.

The new regulation is supposed to go into effect on January 18, 2009, just two days before President-elect Barrack Obama is inaugurated into office. Obama and his administration could revise the rule, it has been pointed out, but such a procedure would take months to complete and would not entirely annul the negative effects of the regulation. At the same time, as the Los Angeles Times points out, Obama promised he would “review all 11th-hour regulations and [would] address them once he is president,” the “right of conscience” law included.