Hospitals and health care clinics that have a specific religious foundation could turn patients away if the procedure conflicted with their beliefs under a new bill introduced to the Senate on Monday.
Sen. Bill Schuette, R-Midland, said he has been following the issue of objecting to procedures based on moral principle for some time.
“The heart of the issue is that there are some services that facilities object to,” said Kirk Hanna, Schuette’s chief of staff. “Each facility identifies those services. They have to live up to their commitment to serve their patients in the best manner possible.”
Although part of health policy law gives physicians, nurses and other personnel the freedom to refuse to perform an abortion, this bill would take it one step further.
“Some previous legislation was targeted toward pharmacists,” Hanna said. “This would target facilities and state-based hospitals.”
Judy Karandjeff, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, has concerns that the legislation will leave people without the care they need.
“We will oppose this bill because potentially, women and men may not have access to comprehensive reproductive health care,” Karandjeff said. “In some communities you may only have access to one hospital or pharmacy.”
Also, Karandjeff said she is worried that hospitals could discriminate based on age, sexual preference, illness or lack of health care.
Pre-med freshman Kaitlin Mcdonald said with changing times, new innovations will have to be combined with tradition.
“We’ll have to look at old traditions to see if they best fit our society now,” she said. “I think that as long as it’s not illegal in the United States, people shouldn’t be denied any sort of procedure.”
Paul Long, vice president for Public Policy at the Michigan Catholic Conference, said he feels the legislation is warranted.
“It’s an important bill because it protects the religious freedom of health care institutions,” Long said. “It protects the freedom of an institution to serve in the way they’ve been serving for generations.”
The Michigan Catholic Conference is an organization that serves as a public voice for the Catholic Church.
Though many objectionable procedures may not have been developed yet by the medical community, Long emphasized the importance of giving health care organizations the right to choose how they will serve the community.
“This bill includes other procedures like family planning, contraception, stem cell research, cloning and fertility issues,” he said. “Catholic and other faith-based providers are under attack from other organizations with different views.
“No one’s real health care would be put in harm’s way. Hospitals haven’t been required to perform abortions since the 1970s. Why would this addition cause a problem for anyone?”
The bill was referred Monday to the Senate Committee on Health Policy.
