New conscience protections are disingenuous

A recent letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from AFT President Randi Weingarten spoke against proposed rule changes regarding the ability of the Office for Civil Rights to impose new procedures to enforce existing laws concerning the rights of health professionals to participate in certain medical procedures.

I thank Randi for her advocacy on healthcare issues because this proposed rule is offered under the false pretense that it protects a healthcare worker from having to participate in a procedure based on his or her religious or ethical beliefs.

Although originally founded as a teachers union, the AFT now represents public service workers and healthcare professionals too. In fact, the AFT is the second-largest representative of registered nurses in the country. As such, we embrace our duty to advocate for all healthcare workers and our patients.

When I first heard about the proposed rule, it sounded like a reasonable protection for healthcare workers. But, when I read the rule, I realized it would not only allow the Civil Rights Division to respond to complaints from healthcare workers, it could also interfere with the rights of patients to receive care.

You see, under current law, healthcare workers are already protected from being forced into participating in any procedure they object to, based on religious beliefs or concerns of conscience.

So why the proposed rule change?

Could it be because under the new rule, healthcare providers would have the right to refuse to treat a patient, not based on the procedure, but based on the patient’s income, race, ethnicity, gender, background, political or religious beliefs, sexual identity, or almost anything? The new rule would also extend these rights to healthcare institutions. These new rules are clearly an attempt to institutionalize discrimination based on who the patient is.

As a registered nurse, it’s my right — legally and ethically — to refuse to participate in certain procedures based on my beliefs. I do not need any new rules to guarantee me this right. I also have a moral obligation to provide care to every patient equally, and I have the same moral obligation to refer any patient to a provider who feels differently than I do, and who can provide them the care they seek.

Healthcare professionals, like everyone, have varying ethical beliefs when it comes to certain procedures. Some of us may object to performing or assisting in abortions, or administering vaccinations, or providing certain end-of-life care, or participating in lethal injections. I vigorously defend their right to object, and the rules as they stand now protect their rights as well.

However, there is no place in healthcare for a provider (or facility) to decide whether to participate or provide a procedure based on a person’s religion, politics, sexual orientation, race or legal status. This proposed rule is not only unnecessary in protecting healthcare workers’ right to practice according to their ethical beliefs, it is potentially harmful to the very patients we have dedicated our lives to care for.

This blog has been posted on AFT Voices at:
https://aftvoices.org/new-conscience-protections-are-disingenuous-e502d37f5d36

I am not a captive

I testified today in Hartford.
Seems like I’ve been doing a lot of that recently.
This time it was before the Judiciary Committee in favor of a bill on Captive Audience Meetings.

I told the committee of my experience in 2011 when, along with my fellow nurses at Backus Hospital, we grew tired of not having a voice and thereby not being able to advocate for our patients, and after trying to get management to listen to us and failing, we formed a union.
I told them of the multiple captive audience meetings I survived.
Meetings in which a manager would pull me into a small room, close the door and then stand in front of it, and tell me that my “union” activities were harming my patients and my coworkers and that I should back down from the effort.
I told them that these meetings were so traumatizing that I would debrief with my organizer (thank you Ole) after the meetings, much as I would after caring for a child in the ER who didn’t survive.
I told them how at one point, two managers cornered me in a 10 foot by 10 foot storage room and berated me for my efforts.

One committee member stated that this sounds much like the size of a prison cell (6 ft X 10 ft) and how it must have felt like I was in a cell at the moment.
Another member said she considers herself a strong person who can stand up to anyone and that my story sounded intimidating even to her.
The chair, whom I have known for some time, said he never thought of me as someone who would back down from intimidation.

While I appreciate that statement, the truth is I am quite sensitive.
I told him this, and that it takes a lot to make me overcome my sensitivity, but not having a voice to advocate for my patients and fearing that some of the younger nurses might be vulnerable to intimidation, allowed me to have the courage to stand up and gain a voice.

Workers should not need to overcome management coercion or intimidation to come together and form a union and gain a voice.
My experience has made me stronger, but it was not easy.
I pray that any work I do makes it easy for others.