Bush Rule: Health care providers can refuse to treat gays.

The Human Rights Campaign has joined women's rights advocates and health care professionals in denouncing one of George W. Bush's numerous last minute regulations designed to appease religious conservatives and make trouble for the incoming Obama administration.  The new Department of Health and Human Services rule would allow any healthcare worker who morally objects to any medical procedure or service to legally refuse to perform it or take part in any way.  From MedPage:  Unlike older "provider conscience" laws, which dealt largely with the behavior of physicians and nurses, the new rule would apply to any employee who has a hand in the healthcare delivery process, including menial tasks such as washing medical instruments. Such workers could legally object to performing their duties if the utensils were to be used in a way the worker deemed morally objectionable... HHS said it is issuing the rule in part out of concern that those from "diverse backgrounds" will be discouraged from entering the health profession because they might feel their religious and moral beliefs will have to be shelved in order to practice.

Once upon a time, people who didn't do their jobs were fired.  These days a person can just claim that they have a "moral" objection to anything they find distasteful - or, under some readings of the rule, anyone they find distasteful.  From HRC:  These regulations could impair LGBT patients’ access to care services if interpreted to permit providers to choose patients based upon sexual orientation, gender identity or family structure... Denying patients legal, safe medical treatments for any reason is simply wrong, and violates the trust that all Americans, regardless of our sexual orientation or gender identity, place in our doctors, nurses, and pharmacists.

Health care workers can now refuse to administer an AIDS test by simply stating that they find gays morally objectionable.  Pharmacists can refuse to dispense contraceptives to women, or hormones to transgendered persons.  The Bush administration has already admitted that the regulation is in part intended to thwart a Connecticut law requiring hospitals to provide rape victims with timely access to and information about emergency contraception.  In an earlier ProPup post, Janis didn't mince words:  Wait a freakin' mother-loving minute here.  THIS is what the new rule is aimed at preventing?   Giving information on the range of options to rape victims? The new regulation would make it okay for a health practitioner to withhold information if the health provider has a personal moral objection to certain options (e.g., the morning after pill)?  All I can say is WTF?!
 
The Bush rule is a setback for LGBT Americans who are routinely kept from visitng loved ones in the hospital.  Now it appears gays and lesbians can be legally denied basic health care from providers who find same-sex relationships immoral.  Such is the compassion of right-wing Christians.  Such is the wisdom of George W. Bush.

Comments

[Nathan]

OH OH OH does this mean health care providers can choose not to treat morons and Republicans as well?

[jes WIlder]

LOL, funny then I guess they will just have to not admit being gay when they go see a doctor. Pretty dumb isnt it.

jess
www.privacy.es.tc

[Yared Af Ework]

This is fucking disgusting.

[Tessa]

Will it be okay for athiest/agnostic doctors and nurses to refuse to treat rightwing evangelicals if they find them morally objectional?

[Karl]

Bush is an idiot.

[G. W. Bush III]

This is because being gay is contagious, and who wants to catch this awful disease. I for one don't.

[Will]

So, if I belonged to one of the religious sects that did not believe in medical care (Faith Assembly, Christian Science, The Believer's Fellowship,etc), could I get a full-time job and not have to do work? Extreme example? Yes.. But no more insane and extreme than the law that this article talks about.

[Avis Alvisto]

I for one do not want my children around homosexuals. It is wrong on every level and I dont want my kids under those types of influences.

[Bee Girl]

Bigotry speaks!

[G. W. Bush III]

I just bought a t-shirt on Syrupkids.com and love it. What a great site.

[jz]

Perhaps I should become a pharmacist and refuse to give out Viagra because I feel that if you can't get it up it is God's way of telling you you should no longer be procreating.

[Ann]

So let me get this straight. If Im raped and I get pregnant.. They can choose not to let me have an abortion? And I for one think its incredibly inane to be predjudiced against someone for any reason. It would be nice to think that we're a little more adult than hating someone simply because they're different than you are wouldn't it?

[Athesist]

"So let me get this straight. If Im raped and I get pregnant.. They can choose not to let me have an abortion?"

yes, there have been cases of a doctor refusing to give a rape victim a rape kit because he found abortion morally objectionable

That's right, the doctor got to force his religious views on the patient in a horrifying way

[Eddie]

I will inform my atheist pharmacist that she is to no longer administer any medication to right wing mythologists.

[Sash]

More morally offensive then sticking scissors in the back of a skull of a fetus and then sucking the brains out with a tube? Or putting chemicals in the womb that fry the baby alive? I believe the majority of this law is disgusting and everyone has the right to medical care but I also think abortion is terrible

[Andrew]

please note that there are many compassionate Christians out there who are saddened by things like this. As one myself who is also gay, I just try my best not to hold hate in my heart for people who are so cruel. It's very hard sometimes though. but the way is narrow...

[Writers Needed- Make $200 a Day]

Ugggh. Even though I am not gay, you cannot refuse to treat a human being, no matter what their sexual peference is. And you know what..this just only lets me know that democracy is dead and our rights are slowly being taken away from us. This is even more troubling and frightening than any "terrorist threat". Plus, how the hell would the healthcare provider know whether the patient is gay or not unless he provided that info?" Hopefully, healthcare providers would ignore this nonense and continue treatment the way it is.

[Rita]

Here's just one example of how they would know: on every new patient form I've every seen you're required to write down an emergency contact name and that person's "relationship" with you. If you're gay or lesbian and have a long-term union, the person you'd want contacted is your significant other - it's on your file. And sexuality is not a "preference" - that's the word fundies use to marginalize a person's orientation.

[Jim]

When doctors refuse to perform services for patients, they also are not going to be paid... If a doctor doesn't want to perform a procedure or do something he isn't comfortable with, he shouldn't have to.
Also, the new law specifically says if the doctor objects morally to the procedure or service, NOT if they morally object to the person's lifestyle. So if a gay person wants a normal procedure, such as a test for AIDs, a doctor could only refuse that person if he also refuses AIDs testings for ALL individuals, as by this law, he would have to object to the actual procedure or service itself, not to the person he would be performing the service for.
Money talks. Smart doctors will do whatever you pay them to.

[Thomas]

"Also, the new law specifically says if the doctor objects morally to the procedure or service, NOT if they morally object to the person's lifestyle."

No, that is not what the law states. Bush's law equates a medical practitioner's objection to a person's lifestyle as a legitimate reason to object to any procedure that would help to support that lifestyle. This means, by the way, that a male Muslim doctor could legally refuse to treat a woman for any condition, even one that is life threatening. The only thing that will stop these idiotic theocrats is having the tables turned on them. I can't wait to hear about some fundy Christian church lady, the same lady who applauds Bush's law, suing a hospital because a Muslim doctor refused to treat her because of his own religious conviction.

[Marco Polo]

This is a dream law for Scientology. They're bound to funnel all sorts of Scientologists into the mental health professions where they can sabotage any everything from the inside out by holding positions and then objecting to the very services those jobs are there to provide.

Great way to let the crazies into (not) providing health care.

[Les]

"Also, the new law specifically says if the doctor objects morally to the procedure or service, NOT if they morally object to the person's lifestyle."

Yeah, and some states that passed anti-gay marriage amendments said that it was only meant to "protect" marriage, then they turned around and starting taking away health care benefits for gays. The rule CAN be interpreted exactly as the article says.

[hope2betrue]

This law is a ticking time bomb hiding behind the abortion/gay controversy

an extreme (but many laws end up extreme) example:

suppose someone is in a horrible car accident. 1) can the police refuse to use the "jaws of life" because they are intolerant of the way they are dressed?
2) when the ambulance EMT crew arrive, could they refuse to help the person? 3) when they get to the hospital can the paper pushers at the front desk refuse to admit the patient?

and think of the legal mess when the lawsuits start...maybe something like "the hospital should have made sure to staff non-offended ppl who would have saved the patients life? And the lawsuits about religious discrimination because someone was denied employment or promotion to the EMT? or paper-pushers?

[Jesus Christ]

I for one do not want my children around homosexuals. It is wrong on every level and I dont want my kids under those types of influences.

Posted by: Avis Alvisto | December 23, 2008 at 10:15 AM

Well, Avis, you better rent a car and get outta this country because homosexuals are EVERYWHERE. They serve in the armed forces, they drive taxis, they ring up your purchases at the store, they work in your hospitals, they are your police, firemen, lawyers and CLERGY. Your bigoted, mindless, ignorant hatred of (in this case) homosexuals will do more to damage your offspring than ANYTHING ANYONE ELSE will EVER do. Homophobia - n. the fear that you will not be hit on in a gay bar. Embrace your homosexual tendencies just once and then shut your mouth.