Free Republic

The Center for Reproductive Rights and the National Women's Law Center filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Thursday after they received no response to a January Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information about the new HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Conscience and Religious Freedom division. The groups are seeking information about how the new division operates, how it allocates resources, whether its decision-making is influenced by outside groups, and why it was needed in the first place. When the division was first announced, HHS explained that it “has been established to...

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that a California law that compels pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise abortion services is unconstitutional. In a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Clarence Thomas and released Tuesday, the high court ruled in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra that the Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Transparency (FACT) Act "unduly burdens protected speech." "The unlicensed notice imposes a government-scripted, speaker-based disclosure requirement that is wholly disconnected from California's informational interest," wrote Justice Thomas. "California has offered no justification that the notice plausibly furthers. It targets speakers, not speech, and imposes...

Some doctors believe their moral or religious beliefs give them the right to withhold information about treatment they find objectionable - and to refuse to refer patients to other practitioners to receive such treatment - according to a University of Chicago survey of doctors nationwide published in the New England of Medicine.University of Chicago bioethicist Farr A. Curlin and his colleagues mailed 12-page questionnaires to 2,000 physicians asking their opinions of three controversial practices - sedating dying patients to the point of unconsciousness; prescribing birth control to teenagers without parental consent; and performing abortions after failed contraception.Of the 1,144 respondents,...

Should a physician be allowed to turn you away if you're gay? Sounds like a no-brainer—but not if you live in Michigan. Michigan's House of Representatives passed a bill last week that permits doctors and other health care providers to walk away from a procedure, treatment, or prescription that violates their religious beliefs. The Conscientious Objector Policy Act, which was pushed by the state's Catholic Conference—and opposed by Michigan's Medical Society—clearly applies to abortions and morning-after pills. But its broad wording could cover other medical situations, such as stem-cell research. The bill bar physicians from denying patients access to contraception,...