No More Freedom of Conscience

The Obama administration has officially stated its expected intention to rescind the 2008 U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services regulation stating that health care providers have a right to abstain from providing services that their consciences will not allow them to perform.

The 2008 regulation stated the following:

U.S.C. 300a-7 (C)(2) prohibits any entity that receives a grant or contract for biomedical research under any program administered by the Department from discriminating against any physician or other health care personnel in employment, promotion, termination of employment or extension of staff or other privileges, because he performed or assisted in the performance of any lawful health service or research activity or because he refused to perform or the assist in the performance of any such service or activity on the grounds that his performance of such service or activity would be contrary to his religious beliefs or moral convictions...

The current administration has proposed rescinding this regulation, requiring all health care providers to perform or assist in procedures whether or not they are against their religious or moral beliefs. This sets a horrendous precedent in our country. The United States was founded on certain freedoms that are being taken away while we watch--or, don't watch, as it were. Freedom of conscience is a cornerstone value on which our country was founded and it is being taken away in our lifetimes. We ask ourselves, those of us who ponder these things, how the citizens of Nazi Germany stood by and let people's rights as human beings be taken away before their very eyes.

We are in danger of ceasing to be a free country, ladies and gentlemen.