Adam Sonfield
Extract
A series of attention-grabbing lawsuits and a crop of new legislation have spotlighted a long-gathering movement to vastly expand the scope of policies allowing health care providers, institutions and payers to refuse to participate in sexual and reproductive health services by claiming a moral or religious objection. In some cases, these radical new policies are intentionally designed to undermine, if not actually eliminate, the ability of governments at all levels, and even private businesses, to balance providers’ “conscience” rights with the ability of patients to exercise their own conscience and gain access to health care services that they want and need.
Sonfield A. New Refusal Clauses Shatter Balance Between Provider ‘Conscience’, Patient Needs. Guttmacher Rep Public Pol. 2004 August:1-3.