The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #49039

Catherine Weiss, JD, Reproductive Freedom Project, American Civil Liberties Union, 125 Broad Street, 18th floor, New York, NY 10004, 212-549-2640, cweiss@aclu.org

This paper will discuss the reasons for the recent proliferation of refusal clauses, their impact on women’s ability to obtain reproductive health care, and a framework for considering when religiously motivated refusals to provide or cover certain reproductive health services are appropriate and when they are not. Participants will be given the tools to analyze religious refusals in the health care context in a manner that balances protecting the public health and patients' rights with protecting individual religious belief and institutional religious worship. Two key factors for determining the acceptability of religious refusals to provide health care will be discussed. 1) Does a refusal place burdens on people who do not share the beliefs that motivate the refusal? The more the burdens fall on such people, the less acceptable a refusal. And 2) Is the objector a sectarian institution engaged in religious practices, or is it an entity—religiously affiliated or not—operating in a public secular setting? The more public and secular the setting, the less acceptable an institution’s claimed right to refuse. Concrete examples illustrating acceptable and unacceptable religious refusals will be considered. In addition, this paper will review the findings of the ACLU’s recent public opinion research that found that Americans overwhelmingly oppose laws that protect religious objectors at the expense of the patient's rights and the public health. Overall, this research shows that the public is deeply troubled by the idea that religious interests could come between them and their health care needs.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this paper, the participant will have the tools to

• Analyze religious refusals in the health care context in a manner that balances protecting the public health and patients' rights with protecting individual religious belief and institutional religious worship. 2)Assess where the American public stands on the issue of religious refusals in the health care context.

Keywords: Access to Health Care, Religion

Related Web page: www.aclu.org/features/f012202a.html

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.