I woke up this morning to read an article about a proposal from the Bush administration that is supposed to protect health-care workers who are opposed to abortion and birth control methods. The proposal would deny federal funding to any health plan or facility that doesn't accommodate employees who want to opt out of performing abortions, giving out emergency contraceptive pills, or any other care/procedure that goes against their personal beliefs. People who are against this plan believe it will limit access to birth control and abortions to all women. I really don't know how I feel about this proposal. I don't think that the government should be able to take away funding for birth control or abortions. The health-care workers applied for the jobs they are in. If they don't believe in abortions, they should not be working in that field.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25940818/
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I agree. I was reading a book that Amanda gave me from her clinic at Preterm and it included people's journals as they were in the waiting room. These are some of the most heart-felt and heart-wrenching accounts I have personally ever came across. These actually include people that are against abortion - mothers, aunts, grandmothers, husbands etc. who were there for the same reason regardless. Everyone turns to the impossible when they are in trouble...
It is true that people turn to the impossible when they are in trouble, but just because one person is in trouble does not necessitate the burden falling on another's shoulders as well. Also, I feel that why the person is in "trouble" is a huge factor in this bill. Reasons for being pregnant and needing an abortion or Plan B range from rape to health to the big one irresponsibility. If I were a health care worker I would have trouble as well giving aid to a woman who got pregnant because of her own misjudgment.
I feel this bill leaves a few challenges that need to be worked out. As it stands, much is left up to the individual workers. For this to worker I feel that all health care workers would have to lay their standards and morals out once being hired. This way if controversial situations arise the health care provider can not act unprejudiced. In addition, patient's rights to ask for a second health care worker need to be laid out so that the bill can be more clearly understood. As it reads now I assume that a patient could just ask for another health care worker.
I think this bill is a great idea (as long as it is better clarified) as those that avoided the medical field because of their beliefs could participate. Who knows maybe some of these people are gifted doctors and nurses?
There's a bit more to this issue. Not sure if y'all read my blog post about this from last week - might go back and look there. Within this bill, "life" is also redefined -- abortion is defined as anything that interrupts "life" from the moment of conception. Not implantation, not 'quickening' (the historical biblical definition of when life began) -- fertilization. This then would open the definition of abortion to include many common birth control methods, including IUDs, potentially hormonal birth control (pills), and Plan B.
So this is not just about non-discriminatory hiring practices (which are already protected under the constitution, incidentally), but about changing the definition of abortion and "life".
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