Michigan: Bill to Let Doctors Refuse to Treat Gays/Lesbians

[liberal43110]

The Michigan House passed a bill that would let all healthcare workers refuse to treat gays, lesbians, and transexuals/transgendered!!!!!! Where will this end?

http://www.proudparenting.com/page.cfm?Sectionid=65&typeofsite=snippetdetail&ID=1204&snippetset=yes



Sorry if this is a dupe, but I hadn't seen it here before...

[benddem]

1. this is old

it happened two years ago. I don't think it passed.

[liberal43110]

2. Thank God

Sorry for the dupe.

[kenny blankenship]

3. All part of the Culture of Life

...and loving life by killing other people.

[preciousdove]

4. They are putting something in the water right?

The stuff coming out of Michigan lately is astonishing. My sole experience in Michigan was trying to find a death certificate and probate records for my husband's grandfather who died in 1948 in Detroit. We had to talk to about 5 people, including a deputy somebody or other and show identification and this was about 1985. Evidently "Public" records have a different definition there.

[tsuki]

5. I don't think this is old. I posted it on another thread.

http://www.proudparenting.com/page.cfm?Sectionid=65&typ...

(Lansing, Michigan) Doctors or other health care providers could not be disciplined or sued if they refuse to treat gay patients under legislation passed Wednesday by the Michigan House.

The bill allows health care workers to refuse service to anyone on moral, ethical or religious grounds.

<snip>

The Conscientious Objector Policy Act would allow health care providers to assert their objection within 24 hours of when they receive notice of a patient or procedure with which they don't agree. However, it would prohibit emergency treatment to be refused.

Three other three bills that could affect LGBT health care were also passed by the House Wednesday which would exempt a health insurer or health facility from providing or covering a health care procedure that violated ethical, moral or religious principles reflected in their bylaws or mission statement.

__
Edited to four paragraphs.

[Maraya1969]

7. Well I think it is time the letter writing began....

and I think we should send this around to our email lists. This is absolutely unacceptable.:nuke:




Fuck them!

[ebayfool]

8. You're right, it's current. The language also leaves a huge opening for ..

them to refuse treatment for just @ anything they care to, not just gays. 'Moral, ethical OR religious' is ambiguous enough to be twisted in alot of ways. Scary people, scary!
-------
snip/
The bill allows health care workers to refuse service to anyone on moral, ethical or religious grounds.
-------
This was pushed hard by the Michigan Catholic Conference.
snip/
Paul A. Long, vice president for public policy for the Michigan Catholic Conference, said the bills promote the constitutional right to religious freedom.
-------
snip/
Three other three bills that could affect LGBT health care were also passed by the House Wednesday which would exempt a health insurer or health facility from providing or covering a health care procedure that violated ethical, moral or religious principles reflected in their bylaws or mission statement.

These 3 bills have potential to let insurers & clinics/hospitals off the hook for the same reasons. Hmm, so insurance companies can grow some ethics & morals to keep from covering whoever/whatever they want (not to save money, of course!) - which could pretty much mean everyone that isn't:



young
healthy
white
straight
christian
wealthy enough to pay (oops, not that!)
& whatever else my tired brain can't think of right now

(course that let's me out- too old, divorced, obstreperous, nocturnal habits, exercising w/a cig in front of a computer on a DEMOCRATIC website - I know I'm breakin' some moral, ethical, fundie rules there!)

[ebayfool]

10. Check the link post #9, looks like this one is old but is coming back ....

under a new name if the Michigan Catholic Conference has it's way.

[Nikki Stone 1]

6. The Michigan House and Senate, both Republican majority, passed it--but

It was vetoed by Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm. And that is the only reason it isn't law today. A similar Wisconsin bill was also vetoed by the governor of that state, though it had also passed the state legislature.

Here is an article from that time:

First, Treat No Homos - A new Hypocritic Oath? Should a physician be allowed to turn you away if you're gay?

Village Voice
by Richard Goldstein
April 29th, 2004 4:30 PM

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, and it forbids discrimination against groups mentioned in the state civil rights law.

Guess which group is excluded from that statute?

"I believe there's a loophole big enough to drive a Mack truck through," said Chris Kolb, Michigan's only openly gay representative. Supporters of the bill are quick to deny this contention—but also loath to add sexual orientation to the bill's protected categories. "I don't think this legislation is the way to address that," Scott Hummel, a Republican lawmaker, told CNN. The Michigan statehouse is dominated by Republicans, which is why Kolb thinks the bill will pass the state senate as well. But the governor, Jennifer Granholm, is a Democrat. She's regarded as gay friendly, but Kolb says he can't be sure she will veto the legislation. Granholm's office released a statement declaring the bill "too broad" as it stands, but adding, "We are sympathetic to this issue and will work with the legislature to develop a version . . . that we all support."

Perhaps the most disturbing news of all was a Detroit News poll asking whether the bill should become law even though "some fear this means gays and lesbians could be refused treatment." Over 53 percent of respondents replied in the affirmative.

Laws exempting doctors from performing abortions exist in some 40 states, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. But these more sweeping statutes are a frightening new weapon for fundamentalists. In Illinois, the Health Care Right of Conscience Act prohibits discrimination not against patients but against doctors who refuse to offer a broad range of treatments for religious reasons. In neighboring Wisconsin, the governor vetoed a bill on April 21 that would have protected physicians who fail to advise patients of their treatment options, provide a referral, or render care if a life is at risk. Even the instructions in a living will could have been ignored if they violated a doctor's beliefs.

A right-of-conscience statute in Mississippi has the unexpected distinction of protecting patients from discrimination because of their sexual orientation. That's more than you can say for Michigan. And the issue is far from academic. During the early years of AIDS, polls showed that a majority of doctors didn't want to treat gay men. Things have changed for the better—or have they?

[ebayfool]

9. I looked & saw it was indeed stopped, but the Michigan Catholic Conference

hasn't given up on it, yet. I'd look for it to be reintroduced under another name. Their 2005-2006 mission statement (advocacy priorities for the current legislative session) states that they intend to fight for what sounds like damned near the same bill. This one is called 'the Religious Rights Freedom Act'. It makes the same call for protecting the conscious right of faith based health care & social service providers & calls it protecting religious freedom. Since they were behind pumping it before, I'd expect they will make the same efforts for this one.

It's a pdf - I really need to find a pdf to text converter, can't copy/paste ... sorry!

http://www.micatholicconference.org/pdf/releases/20050302-AdvocacyPriorities0506.pdf