As medical science progresses, healthcare providers face the increasingly difficult task of providing quality care while preserving the fundamental right to follow their conscience. Abortion (chemical and surgical), contraception, sterilization, in vitro fertilization and other reproductive technologies, embryonic stem cell research, the cloning of human embryos for use in research, and fetal tissue experimentation are all practices that potentially place healthcare providers in a precarious situation. 

SB 64 would allow nurses, doctors, faculty and students training for work in the healthcare profession, as well as institutions to opt out of providing the services listed above when to do so would violate their conscience, or the ethical guidelines or mission statement of the healthcare institution.

It also would prohibit employers from discriminating against employees who refuse to participate in the specified medical procedures or research.

A hallmark of free nations is the recognition of the individual's freedom of conscience. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls conscience "man's most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths." (CCC, 1776).  

Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae stated that conscience protection is a basic human right:

To refuse to take part in committing an injustice is not only a moral duty; it is a basic human right. Were this not so, the human person would be forced to perform an action intrinsically incompatible with human dignity, and in this way human freedom itself, the authentic meaning and purpose of which are found in its orientation to the true and the good, would be radically compromised. (No.74)

You are receiving this alert because your Senator is on the Senate Judiciary Committee. We are asking for your assistance in moving this bill out of committee.