17,000 Faith-Based Doctors Oppose Health Care Bill's Abortion Funding

Only 20% of the doctors in the United States belong to the American Medical Association or AMA.. Among the 80% who don't are seventeen thousand faith-based doctors who belong to the Christian Medical Association, or CMA.. They are urging the House of Representatives to vote against the controversial health care overhaul bill approved by the Senate, H.R. 3590.

Keep an open mind as you read their reasons: "Such funding ....clearly violates the longstanding Hyde amendment and related laws....Besides the obvious moral wrong of funding abortions, this policy will also have negative economic consequences. Incentivized by new insurance subsidies, abortionists will simply raise prices and increase their profits. Increased abortions will rob the country of much of the younger generation that otherwise would help avert the financial strain of a top-heavy older population." (See the complete press release link in Sources below.)

(Ok, mind still open?) The CEO of CMA, David Stevens, MD wrote a letter to all members of the House in which he said: "The CMA strongly opposes this legislation because it fails to provide strong conscience protections for healthcare professionals, allows direct federal funding of elective abortions in community health centers and allows federal funds to subsidize health plans covering abortions."

In a free country, don't we have the right to live according to our own consciences? At this point it's not about what you or anyone else thinks about abortion. It's about a physician's right to refuse to do a procedure that he or she finds morally reprehensible. It's about a citizen's right not to fund a procedure he or she finds morally repugnant. If this reform bill, as some think it now stands, makes it mandatory for physicians and other medical professionals to perform and/or assist with abortions, how many faith-based doctors will stay in the profession to be sued? Shouldn't there be a conscientious objection right for doctors?

If doctors can be forced to commit what THEY feel are murders, be it abortion or euthanasia, they will leave the profession.

CMA has led a national coalition of 50 organizations, Freedom2Care, to fight for healthcare professionals to have "conscience rights." Dr. Stevens noted in the letter, "A national survey of faith-based physicians shows that the failure to protect the rights of healthcare professionals to decline to participate not only in abortion but also in other morally controversial procedures and prescriptions, may cause up to 95 percent of faith-based physicians to leave medicine. Since faith-based physicians provide much of the care for poor patients and those in medically underserved areas, their exodus would lead to a national crisis of access to care of catastrophic proportion."

"The CMA strongly supports funding for community health centers, and many of our physicians work full-time, part-time and on a volunteer basis caring for the poor. But we cannot support federal funding for abortions that will result in yet more abortions while violating the clear will of the American people who do not want their tax dollars used to pay for them, " Dr. Stevens also wrote.

On the issue of federal subsidy of abortions, Dr. Stevens wrote, "Such funding, however cleverly designed to obscure the result, clearly violates the longstanding Hyde amendment and related laws. Such funding also violates the President's oft-repeated pledge to maintain the status quo on abortion funding. Besides the obvious moral wrong of funding abortions, this policy will also have negative economic consequences. Incentivized by new insurance subsidies, abortionists will simply raise prices and increase their profits. Increased abortions will rob the country of much of the younger generation that otherwise would help avert the financial strain of a top-heavy older population." (If you do not believe this legislation would increase abortions, ask why Planned Parenthood has not come out against it.)

Also, "government intrusion into physician-patient decision making and the allocation of medical resources, the absence of meaningful tort reform that is desperately needed to prevent the loss of some of our best physicians-especially obstetricians and gynecologists, and the lack of bipartisan and public support that should undergird any legislation of this magnitude."

Dr. Stevens urged members to "pursue a new bipartisan, measured and focused approach to true healthcare reform. Seven key principles our members look for in healthcare reform include cost containment, quality assurance, access for the poor, economic fairness, ethical protection, prevention focus and personal responsibility."

The question is not what you think is in this bill, and not even what Planned Parenthood thinks. This is not even about Roe v Wade. It's not about forcing victims of rape or incest to deliver their babies. It's not about what you think about abortion. It's not about whether you think doctors make too much money. The question is: Should doctors and medical professionals have a right to refuse to commit what they believe is murder? And should we have to pay for it as taxpayers?

I hope the lively discussion that may result from this article will not involve hate speech of any kind, in the comments section, or by private email. Feedback about the last question above would be appreciated.

Source:
News Release Washington D. C. (Mar 19, 2010) Christian Medical Association Physicians Oppose Healthcare Bill on Abortion, Conscience; Urge House to Vote Against It

The Christian Medical Association