Le chercheur

U.S. Newswire

Tuesday, October 7, 2008, p. n/a

FRC Defends Conscience Law

866-FRC-NEWS, both of Family Research Council

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Family Research Council (FRC) has released comments that FRC and several other groups filed with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in strong support of regulations to enforce statutes now on the books that protect health care providers' right of conscience. Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed regulations that increase public awareness of, and require governmental compliance with, these conscience protection statutes. HHS asked the public to comment on the proposed rules.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080930/FRCLOGO)

Tony Perkins, President of Family Research Council released the following statement:

"The Church, Coats, and Weldon Amendments should be strongly enforced by the government just as every other civil rights law is. Many of the intended beneficiaries of these landmark federal statues, which are intended to protect health care providers' right of religious and moral conscience, do not know their rights under the law. The proposed HHS regulations are needed to educate health care workers about their conscience rights and implement these statutory protections.

"Recognizing that a right of conscience among healthcare workers needs to be enforced to ensure that health care providers are not discriminated against, such regulations would not undermine women's access to healthcare, despite what pro-abortion groups would have Americans believe. Rather, these regulations would implement conscience protections that are constitutionally guaranteed and have been embodied in statutory law for the past 35 years.

"Family Research Council urges the Department to enact the proposed regulations for the civil right protections guaranteed to health care workers."

Download a copy of FRC's comments at http://downloads.frc.org/EF/ EF08J02.pdf


SOURCE: Family Research Council