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National Right to
Life urges U.S. House of Representatives
to protect conscience rights of health-care providers
September 1, 2004
Dear Member of Congress:
When the House takes up the Labor-HHS appropriations bill (as yet
unnumbered), perhaps next week, there may be an attempt to strike the
Hyde-Weldon conscience protection provision (Section 509d). The National
Right to Life Committee (NRLC) urges you to support retention of this
provision, which was approved by the Appropriations Committee on July 14.
The provision would prevent any level of government from discriminating
against a health care provider merely because the provider declines to
"provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions."
The Hyde-Weldon provision embodies the same non-discrimination policy as the
Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (ANDA), a bill that the House passed on
September 25, 2002 (107th Congress)
by a vote of 229 to 189 (roll call no. 412). Unfortunately, that bill
was not acted on by the Senate.
Current federal law ("Coats-Snowe Amendment," 42 U.S.C. §§238n) protects the
conscience rights of health care providers who do not wish to offer or
undergo abortion training. The Hyde-Weldon provision would provide
consistent federal protection from government discrimination for other
health care providers such as doctors, hospitals, and insurers who decline
to participate in abortions.
The text of the committee-approved language appears below.
The committee-approved language is an urgently needed response to a national
effort on the part of certain groups to employ the coercive powers of state
and local government agencies and courts to force health-care providers,
including religiously affiliated hospitals, to perform or fund abortions.
For example, in Alaska the state supreme court ruled that a community
hospital must perform late abortions against the wishes of the hospital's
board of directors. Catholic hospitals and HMOs have been pressured by
authorities in New Jersey and New York for refusal to provide abortions or
abortion-related services. In Connecticut, a certificate of need was denied
to a proposed outpatient surgical center because it declined to perform
abortions, after abortion activists intervened in the proceedings. A
hospital merger in New Hampshire was undone when pro-abortion activists
intervened with the state attorney general. The city council of St.
Petersburg, Florida, forced a private hospital to leave a non-profit
consortium because the consortium followed a pro-life policy.
The Hyde-Weldon provision:
-- affirms that government entities that receive government funds cannot
engage in invidious discrimination. This is consistent with numerous other
federal laws basing the receipt of funds on the guarantee of civil rights.
Such laws do not result in actual defunding of state or local governments;
rather, they result in these governments conforming to the federal
non-discrimination standard.
-- does not "gag" clinics that receive federal funding under Title X of the
Public Health Service Act. The Hyde-Weldon provision does not prohibit any
health care provider from voluntarily offering any abortion-related service;
it merely ensures that no government agency will discriminate against
providers who decline to offer the specific abortion-related services
mentioned in the provision. Under the federal Title X statute, as construed
by the Department of Health and Human Services in 2001, Title X clinics are
required to provide clients, upon request, with "neutral, factual"
information about abortion, but they are not required to provide direct
referrals for abortion, and they may not make appointments, arrange
transportation, or otherwise facilitate abortions.
-- is fully consistent with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor
Act (42 USC 1395dd), which requires critical-care facilities to provide
stabilizing care to protect "the health of the individual (or, with respect
to a pregnant woman, the health of the woman or her unborn child)."
-- is consistent with Medicaid case law that require states to co-fund
abortions performed on Medicaid-eligible women in the few circumstances for
which federal reimbursement is available (currently life of the mother,
rape, and incest). Such abortions can be and are performed by willing
abortion providers, without states forcing specific health-care providers to
provide abortions in violation of their religious beliefs or ethical
standards.
If a motion is offered to strike the Hyde-Weldon language, NRLC urges you to
oppose that motion. NRLC will include the roll call on any such motion in
our scorecard of key pro-life votes for the 108th Congress.
Thank you for your consideration of NRLC's position on this important issue.
Sincerely,
Douglas Johnson
NRLC Legislative Director
Patricia Coll
Congressional Liaison
(202) 626-8820
Text of the Hyde-Weldon conscience protection provision:
At the end of section 509, add the following:
(d) (1) None of the funds made available in this Act may be made available
to a Federal agency or program, or to a State or local government, if such
agency, program, or government subjects any institutional or individual
health care entity to discrimination on the basis that the health care
entity does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for
abortions. (2) In this subsection, the term "health care entity" includes
an individual physician or other health care professional, a hospital, a
provider-sponsored organization, a health maintenance organization, a health
insurance plan, or any other kind of health care facility, organization, or
plan.
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