{"id":5027,"date":"2016-08-02T11:49:10","date_gmt":"2016-08-02T17:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=5027"},"modified":"2016-08-02T12:04:25","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T18:04:25","slug":"not-newsworthy-in-illinois-rauner-destroys-conscience-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/08\/not-newsworthy-in-illinois-rauner-destroys-conscience-protections.html","title":{"rendered":"Not Newsworthy in Illinois? Rauner destroys conscience protections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"DSC_0304c\"<\/p>\n

Last Friday, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law<\/a> the Orwellianly-named Health Care Right of Conscience Act, which in fact strips away conscience rights with respect to abortion.<\/p>\n

You wouldn\u2019t know it from the Chicago Tribune, though, or any other Chicago news outlet, because it\u2019s apparently not newsworthy. \u00a0I only saw it in a facebook item from a pro-life group, and had to hunt around for details.<\/p>\n

The law itself? \u00a0Its supporters painted it as wholly reasonable because it doesn\u2019t force any provider to actually perform an abortion. \u00a0And they have a sympathetic victim to point to, a woman named Mindy<\/a> whose water broke when she was 20 weeks pregnant. \u00a0The doctors at the Catholic hospital she went to for treatment, following Catholic hospital protocol, would not induce labor\/perform an abortion but instead (apparently) wanted to wait, and reportedly wouldn\u2019t transfer her medical records to a non-Catholic hospital so that she was unable to get insurance approval for the procedure elsewhere. \u00a0Now, it seems to me that it should be standard procedure to transfer medical records, and it shouldn\u2019t have made a difference in any case \u2014 I fail to understand how the second hospital would have been unable to diagnose her.<\/p>\n

(In the end, she was induced and delivered a stillborn child at 27 weeks, so the complaint is that she shouldn\u2019t have had to experience the bleeding, discomfort, and worry in the meantime.)<\/p>\n

But rather than requiring that these two problems be remedied \u2014 providing a smooth transfer of records, and requiring cooperation from a receiving hospital even absent records \u2014 abortion advocates used her case for a breathtakingly-broad law.<\/p>\n

Here are the key bits<\/a>:<\/p>\n

(1) The health care facility, physician, or health care
\npersonnel shall inform a patient of the patient\u2019s
\ncondition, prognosis, legal treatment options, and risks
\nand benefits of the treatment options in a timely manner,
\nconsistent with current standards of medical practice or
\ncare.<\/p>\n

(2) When a health care facility, physician, or health
\ncare personnel is unable to permit, perform, or participate
\nin a health care service that is a diagnostic or treatment
\noption requested by a patient because the health care
\nservice is contrary to the conscience of the health care
\nfacility, physician, or health care personnel, then the
\npatient shall either be provided the requested health care
\nservice by others in the facility or be notified that the
\nhealth care will not be provided and be referred,
\ntransferred, or given information in accordance with
\nparagraph (3).<\/p>\n

(3) If requested by the patient or the legal
\nrepresentative of the patient, the health care facility,
\nphysician, or health care personnel shall: (i) refer the
\npatient to, or (ii) transfer the patient to, or (iii)
\nprovide in writing information to the patient about other
\nhealth care providers who they reasonably believe may offer
\nthe health care service the health care facility,
\nphysician, or health personnel refuses to permit, perform,
\nor participate in because of a conscience-based objection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And<\/p>\n

(a) \u201cHealth care\u201d means any phase of patient care,
\nincluding but not limited to, testing; diagnosis; prognosis;
\nancillary research; instructions; family planning,
\ncounselling, referrals, or any other advice in connection with
\nthe use or procurement of contraceptives and sterilization or
\nabortion procedures; medication; or surgery or other care or
\ntreatment rendered by a physician or physicians, nurses,
\nparaprofessionals or health care facility, intended for the
\nphysical, emotional, and mental well-being of persons;<\/p>\n

(b) \u201cPhysician\u201d means any person who is licensed by the
\nState of Illinois under the Medical Practice Act of 1987;<\/p>\n

(c) \u201cHealth care personnel\u201d means any nurse, nurses\u2019 aide,
\nmedical school student, professional, paraprofessional or any
\nother person who furnishes, or assists in the furnishing of,
\nhealth care services;<\/p>\n

(d) \u201cHealth care facility\u201d means any public or private
\nhospital, clinic, center, medical school, medical training
\ninstitution, laboratory or diagnostic facility, physician\u2019s
\noffice, infirmary, dispensary, ambulatory surgical treatment
\ncenter or other institution or location wherein health care
\nservices are provided to any person, including physician
\norganizations and associations, networks, joint ventures, and
\nall other combinations of those organizations;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So clearly this is written for these \u201cthreatened miscarriage\u201d cases, where Catholic policy prevents women from a quick \u201cget it over with\u201d abortion. \u00a0(See here for links<\/a>, at the bottom of the article.) \u00a0Following the new legislation, a doctor is now required to tell a patient, \u201cyou could go over to Hospital X and have an abortion, and I\u2019ll arrange the transfer paperwork,\u201d no matter their or their hospital\u2019s conscience-held beliefs. \u00a0Which is already a violation of conscience.<\/p>\n

But the text is even broader.<\/p>\n

The first paragraph above says,<\/p>\n

The health care facility, physician, or health care\u00a0personnel shall inform a patient of the patient\u2019s\u00a0condition, prognosis, legal treatment options, and risks\u00a0and benefits of the treatment options in a timely manner,\u00a0consistent with current standards of medical practice or\u00a0care.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As written, I don\u2019t see anything that restricts this to scenarios of miscarriage putting a woman\u2019s health at risk, and the question of weather you abort or wait. \u00a0The text seems like it could just as easily cover any scenario in which a pregnancy test is positive<\/strong>, both at a doctor\u2019s office and at a crisis pregnancy clinic, so long as, in the latter case, a \u201chealth care service\u201d is provided. \u00a0In any such case, according to the law, the provider would be required to state, \u201cyou can have an abortion if you wish; here are the risks and benefits and a referral.\u201d<\/p>\n

And before you say, \u201cIt won\u2019t hold up in court,\u201d consider that Clinton has promised to appoint justices who will take the broadest possible view of abortion rights.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: \u00a0Bruce Rauner at a 4th of July parade, own work.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law the Orwellianly-named Health Care Right of Conscience Act, which in fact strips away conscience rights with respect to abortion. You wouldn\u2019t know it from the Chicago Tribune, though, or any other Chicago news outlet, because it\u2019s apparently not newsworthy. \u00a0I only saw it in a facebook […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":2332,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[374],"tags":[198,437],"class_list":["post-5027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-abortion","tag-rauner"],"yoast_head":"\nNot Newsworthy in Illinois? 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