Lingering “conscience clause” question
One lingering question about the revocation of the midnight-hour, Bush administration “conscience” rule:
If health care providers were in such a bind when it came to “conscience” objections, why didn’t President Bush push for the new HHS regulation years ago? If it is critical, why was it done in the last month of Bush’s presidency and why didn’t it go into effect until he’d left office?
The official HHS press release notes the existence of several statutes already in place to safeguard the freedom of health care providers to practice according to their conscience, but then makes the politically-charged statement that the new regulations were put in place to “increase awareness of, and compliance with, these laws.”
President Obama isn’t advocating for overturning any of those statutes that the Bush administration said “safeguard the freedom of health care providers to practice according to their conscience.” It seems to me that all the president is doing is ordering a review of a hasty and problematically vague change in regulation.