(no subject)

[drewbear]

Apparently there's a bill before the Senate to change federal law so that anyone involved in health care, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and health insurance companies, can refuse to have anything to do with abortions if they suffer from moral or religious objections. Here are some useful links:

• Ginmar's journal entry where I first read about this.
  
• The CNN story
  
• Text of the bill and analysis
  
• Example of "Pharmacists For Life" in action
  

As someone else pointed out, it's like the scene in Monty Python and the Meaning of Life where the Irish Catholic family sings "Every Sperm Is Sacred".

Isn't. That. Just. Ducky.

Comments

[joshualore.livejournal.com]

wtf thats unconstitutional just by church and state.

[drewbeartx.livejournal.com]

Actually, no it isn't. Separation of church and state mandates that there can be no state-mandated or -run religion and that the government can neither support nor ban any religion.

It has been interpreted to also mean that religious discrimination in the private sector is illegal (at least with regards to internal matters: hiring, firing, promoting, etc.), but it does not explicitly say so.

And I believe/hope that this law will either not pass the Senate or get struck down by the Supreme Court, but it's not illegal if Congress says it isn't. They make the federal laws, after all.