Washington D.C., Oct 13, 2004 / 22:00 pm
A recent Boston Globe article, which targeted Catholic health care providers and laws that protect them from participating in abortion, is based on egregious errors of fact, says Maureen K. Bailey, public policy analyst for the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.
In her article, Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman attacks “the ‘conscience clauses’ being pushed to let healthcare workers and whole institutions opt out of providing healthcare, especially reproductive care, on religious grounds.”
Goodman concludes: “At some point doesn’t religious practice become medical malpractice?”
Bailey explains that “it is not medical malpractice for healthcare providers to decline providing elective procedures.” She points out that the American medical, nursing and pharmaceutical associations all support the right of providers to decline participating in any procedure on the basis of conscience.