Several religious freedom experts suggested the Protecting Women’s Health Act's effect on Christian medical professionals who are against abortion should the bill pass the Senate and be signed into law.
Charlotte Lozier Institute associate scholar Richard M. Doerflinger told Fox News Digital in a Tuesday statement that in “theory, federal law protects the conscience rights of doctors and nurses with moral objections to abortion.”
“But the Biden Administration disbanded the HHS Office of Civil Rights division that had enforced those laws,” Doerflinger said. “The one remaining law that does not depend on the Administration’s whims is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, because it allows the oppressed party to go to court to defend his or her own rights -- and the Women’s Health Protection Act would nullify that Act as it applies to abortion.”
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“Christian doctors and nurses would be covered by the WHPA’s mandate that all states maximize ‘access’ to elective abortions,” he suggested. “The law that protected religious orders and religious health care providers from being forced to pay for contraceptives and abortifacients under Obamacare would not protect them from having to perform and refer for even late-term abortions.”
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Heritage Foundation religion policy analyst Melanie Israel shared similar concerns, telling Fox News Digital that the “WHPA specifically exempts itself from a defense raised under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.”
“This law was enacted on a resoundingly bipartisan basis, with the support of members – like Sen. Schumer – who tomorrow will vote to ignore it,” she continued.
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Israel said, “the WHPA states that a ‘health care provider has a statutory right under this Act to provide abortion services and may provide abortion services, and that provider’s patient has a corresponding right to receive such services…’ This directly conflicts with, for example, a faith-based hospital’s ability to have a policy not to allow elective late-term abortions to be conducted on its premises.”
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“The WHPA says it would supersede other Federal and state law, imperiling longstanding policies like the Church, Coats-Snow, and Weldon Amendments (and their state counterparts), which together have provided meaningful protections for individuals and health care entities who don’t want to perform, provide, pay for, or refer for abortions,” Israel added.
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Jessica Anderson, executive director of Heritage Action, told Fox News Digital that as “we have seen from the attacks on church-goers and Catholic justices, the pro-abortion lobby will stop at nothing to get their way, even if it means committing violence or infringing on Americans’ religious liberties.”
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