United States: Threats Over Medical Conscientious Objection
Three months after his arrival at the White House, US President Joe Biden wants to force health workers to comply with the request of people wishing to change their sex. Offenders would be found guilty of the offense of “discrimination based on sex.”
"My whole soul resides in this: to bring America together, to unite our people, to unite our nation." This is how the current American President spoke at the time of his inauguration on Capitol Hill on January 20, 2021.
Three months after his first speech, Joe Biden filed an appeal to eliminate the freedom of conscience of health care professionals who refuse to perform certain surgical procedures, such as sex reassignment or even abortion.
It all started in 2016 when the Obama administration issued an executive order implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
It made it obligatory for any surgeon to carry out sex reassignment operations, as the case may be, without the possibility of opposing it on the basis of religious or even medical beliefs.
More than 19,000 health professionals from nine states, as well as several faith-based organizations then filed several appeals against the presidential decree, which significantly reduced its scope, two federal courts having suspended the decree.
Two more judges ruled against the executive order in 2019 and 2021. Last January, a North Dakota judge granted a permanent suspension of the order to doctors, hospitals, clinics, and Catholic groups.
But on April 13, the Biden administration appealed the ruling, asking that the executive order remain in effect. Thus, since April 20, the administration, presided over by Catholic Joe Biden now intends to charge with the crime of “discrimination based on sex,” any practitioner who refuses to bow to the demands of “transgender” patients.
“It’s bad for patients, doctors, and religious freedom,” warned Luke Goodrich. For this lawyer, vice-president of the Becket group, which defends the interests of doctors and Catholic hospitals, “we call for another decision which protects patients, harmonizes with current medical research, and which guarantees that doctors will not be forced to violate their religious beliefs or their ethical criteria.”
It seems that some Americans are excluded from the uniting of the country wanted by the new president.
(Source : Catholic News Agency – FSSPX.Actualités)
Illustration : Flickr / U.S. Secretary of Defense (CC BY 2.0)
