Canada – Alberta’s doctors say they worry about the effects of a conscience rights bill

Alberta’s doctors say they worry about the effects of a conscience rights bill

Christina Frangou
Published January 17, 2020

Dr. Jillian Demontigny keeps a rainbow bracelet wrapped around the stethoscope that she drapes across her neck. It’s her signal to any LGBTQ patient who arrives at her clinic: you are welcome here.

Dr. Demontigny is one of 13 physicians working at the Taber Clinic, a family medicine clinic in a southern Alberta town of 8,500 people. Over her 14 years in Taber, she has expanded her practice to offer extra supports for patients looking for the kind of health care that can be hard to access in this rural, conservative region, where anti-abortion billboards are posted along the highway.

Continued: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/canada/alberta/article-albertas-doctors-say-they-worry-about-the-effects-of-a-conscience/

USA – Worried about abortion laws? Catholic hospital mergers also seen as threat to women’s health care

Worried about abortion laws? Catholic hospital mergers also seen as threat to women's health care

Rikha Sharma Rani
Dec 27, 2019

In 1995, Lois Uttley was working as a reproductive rights advocate in New York when the merger of two hospitals in Troy, a city near Albany, caught her off-guard.

One was secular, the other, Catholic. The secular hospital agreed to abide by rules written by Catholic bishops banning certain procedures deemed “immoral” by the church, like abortion, contraception, in-vitro fertilization and tubal ligation.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/12/27/worried-abortion-laws-more-catholic-hospitals-also-seen-threat/4269242002/

USA – Most states protect doctors who refuse to do abortions because of religion

Most states protect doctors who refuse to do abortions because of religion

Linda Carroll, Reuters
November 19, 2019

(Reuters Health) – The vast majority of U.S. states have passed laws blocking civil lawsuits that might result from a doctor refusing to perform an abortion or certain other medical procedures because of religious beliefs, a new study shows.

The national survey found that 46 states had laws protecting medical professionals and institutions from being sued for harm to patients related to a refusal to provide services out of conscience, researchers report in JAMA.

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/health-pmn/most-states-protect-doctors-who-refuse-to-do-abortions-because-of-religion