Calling All Doctors

I received this from a friend of mine currently in medical school, right on the heels of having heard it discussed on the radio while driving home one day. While this letter was written directly to medical students and medical personnel, I post it here in the hopes that you will make your healthcare providers or friends in the medical professions aware of what's going on. This also HUGELY affects us! Would you want to be cared for by a doctor who was being forced to violate his conscience? I sure wouldn't! Lastly, there is lots that WE as JoeShmo & Suzy Americana can do-- it's our country, after all! Please read this and take as many of the steps towards action as you are able to do!

A little background info on this issue:
"In August 2008, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) took long-overdue action to address a growing crisis of abortion-related discrimination that could force thousands of conscientious healthcare professionals out of medicine. After several months of public comment on its proposed regulation, in December 2008 HHS finalized a regulation that made clear the protections offered by three civil rights laws passed by Congress with bipartisan support.
The civil rights laws declare that American tax dollars will not fund programs in which healthcare professionals are fired, penalized or otherwise subjected to discrimination because of their ethical stance related to abortion and other morally controversial issues.
However, in March 2009, following protests from abortion special interest groups, the new administration officially declared plans to rescind--get rid of--the conscience-protecting regulation. The administration has, as required by law, called for public comment on the proposed plan to get rid of the conscience-protecting regulation, with a deadline of April 9, 2009." (from freedom2care.org)

Remember-- the proposed legislation will remove the law that currently says medical professionals cannot be coerced into doing something that is against their consience. That means that if you go to your doctor & request an elective procedure, he has every right to say, "You know, I would not feel comfortable doing that, [and here's why:___]. But here are several of my fellow doctors' names & numbers-- they are competent & would have no trouble doing that for you. I'll be glad to send your files over to whichever of them you choose." THAT'S ALL! Tell me how that is so outrageous!?? I mean, people and their doctors have always had a right to disagree-- that's where the whole "second opinion" comes in. If you don't agree with one doctor, after listening carefully and researching, you are free to find another one... and there's no need to sue the him, either! That said, read the below.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A letter from David Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics), leader of the CMDA (Christian Medical & Dental Association) to all members of CMDA:

Your Right of Conscience is going, going and could be gone. The administration intends to rescind the HHS regulations we fought so hard for last fall and for the first time put teeth into Right of Conscience laws. I need you to speak out now before it is to late. Here is what is going on in a nutshell:

• You have until April 9th to make public comments to HHS and encourage others to do so - colleagues, nurses, pharmacists, office staff, friends, SS members. We need to flood the site so the administration sees a high political price if they go forward.
• CMDA has organized the Freedom2Care Coalition, to fight for your right to not participate in abortions or other activities that violate your conscience. Coalition members include the Family Research Council, Concerned Women of America, the Catholic Church, Alliance Defense Fund, National Right to Life, The Christian Legal Society and others are joining daily.
• Our three goals:
  1. To protect the new federal HHS [US Dept. of Health & Human Services] “provider conscience” regulation.
  2. To educate and persuade the public, policy makers and the medical community regarding conscience rights.
  3. To expose and undermine the abortion-mandate ideology of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Planned Parenthood and other abortion lobbyists as unethical and detrimental to patients.

Here is what you need to do:

• Go to http://www.freedom2care.org/ today and frequently as it continues to develop with content daily.
• Send a comment to HHS: Click the "Healthcare Professionals'" link at the top. You can send a form letter or write one. I encourage you to write your own comment. Address the issues that HHS wants addressed. Information, including specific examples where feasible, addressing the scope and nature of the problems giving rise to the need for federal rulemaking and how the current rule would resolve those problems; Information, including specific examples where feasible, supporting or refuting allegations that the December 19, 2008 final rule reduces access to information and health care services, particularly by low-income women; comment on whether the December 19, 2008 final rule provides sufficient clarity to minimize the potential for harm resulting from any ambiguity and confusion that may exist because of the rule; and comment on whether the objectives of the December 19, 2008 final rule might also be accomplished through non-regulatory means, such as outreach and education.
• Learn more about the issue.
• Find resources to equip you to educate others.
• Sign the petition on the site that will be forwarded to Congress and the White House.
• Tell your story of discrimination or being pressured to violate your conscience. Stories are worth their weight in gold!
• If you have been discriminated against or pressured to violate your conscience please let us know by sending us an e-mail to communications@cmda.org. We are putting together audio and video resources to tell your story. Stories are a dramatic tool that demonstrates the need for these regulations.

Some Background information:

• CMDA Informal Member Survey: 25% have been discriminated against - lost a job, lost a promotion or lost an educational opportunity; 40% have been pressured to violate their conscience, 90% say the problem is getting worse.
• Right of Conscience is guaranteed in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights - "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" [My note- forcing someone to violate their conscience would definitely be a prohibition of free exersice of that person's religion. That's why in many states parents can opt out of vaccinating their children, and in all states religious objectors are exempt from combat duty, just to name a few examples.]
• The present laws are being ignored since there is no provision to enforce them.
• Pro-abortion groups are attempting to force healthcare professionals to participate in activities they are morally opposed to or leave medicine. These regulations are needed more than ever.
• A medical referral means you endorse the competency, ethics and integrity of the doctor you refer to, believe the procedure is necessary and that you have entered into a professional relationship. Patients don't need a referral to find someone to do an abortion, just a phone book.
• Healthcare professionals of conscience have not been doing objectionable activities in the past so these regulations will not limit access for patients. The greatest danger to patient access is to force out of work up to a quarter of healthcare professionals.
• You provide full and accurate information to patients even when they request something you won't do. You treat them courteously.
• Professional and other ethical statements support your position.
  - American Medical Association - AMA reaffirms that neither physician, hospital, nor hospital personnel shall be required to perform any act violative of personally held moral principles.
  - World Health Organization - The physician should be free to make clinical and ethical judgments without inappropriate outside interference.
  - Canadian Medical Association - The CMA stresses that physicians who decline to participate in abortion should not be discriminated against, and emphasizes the need to respect the rights of conscientious objectors, especially those in training for obstetrics and gynecology, and anesthesia.
  - European Convention on Human Rights - Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes… freedom …to manifest his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.
• This is more than the issue of abortion. Should we force pacifist to kill or doctors to participate in executions? What about forcing them to participate in physician-assisted suicide where it is legalized?

There is much more information on Freedom2care.org and CMDA's websites. Act today, don't delay. You may submit more than one comment as you address different parts of HHS's request.

I close with this quote from Crispin Sartwell in the Los Angeles Times last fall. He describes himself as a "Pro-Choice Atheist."

“The extent to which an institution seeks to expunge individual conscience and moral autonomy is the extent to which it is totalitarian and dangerous. The idea that I resign my conscience to the institution or to the state is perhaps the single most pernicious notion in human history. It is at the heart of the wars and genocides of this century and the last.”

In Him who gives us peace in the storm,
David Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics)
Chief Executive OfficerChristian Medical & Dental Associations