Right of Conscience Archives – Christian Medical & Dental Associations® (CMDA)

Escaping Death

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 14:12, ESV).

Medical Conscience Rights, Part II: Sexual Minority Conflicts

Conscience rights are constitutional priorities as well as professional and personal necessities for free people, and these enjoy strong and historic support from the legislature, executive branch and judiciary. They are worth defending, especially when misrepresented and misunderstood.

Medical Conscience Rights, Part 1

Per Alliance Defending Freedom: “Freedom of conscience means you are free to carry out your moral duty without fear of government coercion or punishment.”

Also, it need not be faith-based to count. Conscience is conscience, and these rights protect our atheist colleagues as they do us. Canadian philosopher Edward Tingley explains that conscience rights protect those who object to the norm of what even a majority thinks is right, and they apply when (1) a cogent claim can be made that (2) grave wrong is done. The claim of wrong needs only to be serious and defensible.

Conscience rights exist precisely to protect someone who disagrees with majority consensus. They specifically protect unpopular opinions. The objection needs only to be serious and defensible.

How CMDA Made an Impact in Washington in 2019

Since CMDA opened its Washington, D.C. federal public policy ministry office in 2000, God has opened doors for influence that have far exceeded all that we could ask or imagine. The following few highlights of last year (organized by months, with the most recent first) illustrate how God is using this ministry to advance kingdom values in our government.

CMDA Court Cases: Good News and Bad News

This month’s blog provides updates on two Christian Medical & Dental Associations federal lawsuits. The following case updates are information and help for healthcare professionals who have experienced discrimination on the basis of their faith and conscience.

Message at Supreme Court: Constitution Protects Both Minority and Majority Viewpoints

I recently spoke outside the Supreme Court in the face of raucous protests on the day of oral arguments in a case involving transgender individuals and alleged sex discrimination, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Speeches had resumed outside the court after a bomb scare had prompted police to clear the area.

The Emperor’s New Genders: A 911 Call for Christians in Healthcare

This is my first opportunity to write for The Point since joining CMDA’s executive team in September 2016. That was a huge transitioning summer for my family, moving from Tenwek Hospital in Kenya to Bristol, Tennessee by way of St. Joseph, Michigan, where I had been a general surgeon partner in a multispecialty practice for 23 years.

National Poll: Faith-based Health Professionals Care for All but Need Conscience Protections on Moral Issues

Faith-based health professionals care with compassion and respect for all patients, but they will leave medicine rather than violate their conscience if forced to participate in morally objectionable procedures and prescriptions.

Three New Regs and two CMDA Court Cases Aim to Protect Faith-centered Professionals

Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) and Freedom2Care (our center for freedom of faith, conscience and speech) recently submitted official comments on three federal regulations that significantly impact faith-based organizations and conscience-guided health professionals. We also have engaged in court cases, described below, related to two of these regulations.

The New HHS Conscience Rule: What It Means to You and Your Patients

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a final rule that implements 25 federal conscience laws and strongly protects the exercise of conscience freedom by health professionals and health entities in HHS funded programs. HHS had issued a proposed conscience rule in January 2018 and finalized the rule May 2 after reviewing some 242,000 public comments, including from the Christian Medical Association (CMA) and Freedom2Care, which strongly support the rule.

Conscience Rights: Does Your Medical Association Support Them?

Where leading medical institutions stand on the right of conscience and religious freedom can sway court decisions and influence federal legislation. Therefore, it is important to know where prominent groups, such as the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the World Health Organization, stand on these issues. Each of these groups represents a vast number of medical professionals, and yet their policies do not always accurately express their members’ diverse views, nor do they defend their members’ first amendment rights.

In some cases, the stances of medical organizations stand in direct opposition to the principles in federal law and regulations, which are outlined at the end of this essay.

Right of Conscience

He spoke softly but confidently, without bitterness, as he described how he had been removed as chief of psychiatry at his medical university because he had voiced concern over the psychological effects of transgender transformation. It was he who had built the department from four psychiatrists to 17, and the 17 had voted him out. As I left the auditorium, another physician’s husband stopped me, “Do you know my wife may soon be incarcerated?” He then described a new bill moving through their state’s legislature that will make it a crime for physicians not to refer their pregnant patients for abortions when they ask.

“Choose, You Lose” Scheme Threatens All Ethical Professionals

In his continuing series on conscience in healthcare, Vice President for Government Relations Jonathan Imbody discusses how the rationale for conscience protections in healthcare being undermined.

Intolerance of Conscience Threatens Diversity in Medicine

In his continuing series on conscience in healthcare, Jonathan Imbody shares about a recent conference he attended with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on religious freedom and how that impacts CMDA student chapters around the country.

New Federal Rule Protects Conscience and Opens the Door to Pro-Life Family Planning Programs

In this week’s blog post, Jonathan Imbody shares about a new proposed federal rule that, if finalized after a public comment period ending July 31, will allow pro-life medical professionals and programs to finally take advantage of family planning grants opportunities.

Christian Medical Association Physicians Laud New Federal Conscience Rule as Protecting Patient Access to Healthcare

Today the Christian Medical Association the nation’s largest faith-based association of physicians and other health professionals, said a new proposed rule announced today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (HHS OCR) will help protect patient access to healthcare.

Abortion and Sex Issues Incite Opposition to Conscience Freedom Rule

his is the eighth in a series of on conscience in healthcare, by Jonathan Imbody, Vice President for Government Relations for the Christian Medical Association and Director of Freedom2Care. To find more from the series, visit www.cmda.org/thepoint or freedom2care.blogspot.com.

New HHS division, conscience freedom laws and policies protect patients and physicians

This excerpt is the sixth in a series of essays on conscience in healthcare, by Jonathan Imbody, Vice President for Government Relations of the Christian Medical Association and Director of Freedom2Care. The essays respond to “Physicians, Not Conscripts — Conscientious Objection in Health Care,” Ronit Y. Stahl, Ph.D. and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, New England Journal of Medicine 376;14, April 6, 2017.

Rights of Conscience, Moral Complicity and Free Speech

The title of the article might lead a reader to believe the authors support a physician’s right of conscience, but they do just the opposite. They strongly assert the will of the patient over the conscience of the physician. They write, “Making the patient paramount means offering and providing accepted medical interventions in accordance with patients’ reasoned decision,” and “Health care professionals who are unwilling to accept these limits [putting aside their own conscience to support patient autonomy] have two choices: select an area of medicine, such as radiology that will not put them in situations that conflict with their personal morality, or if there is no such areas, leave the profession.” While this quote would seem to apply to a broad variety of issues, in the context of the article the authors are referring to abortion.

Are healthcare conscience laws needed?

This excerpt is the fifth in a series of essays on conscience in healthcare, by Jonathan Imbody, Vice President for Government Relations of the Christian Medical Association and Director of Freedom2Care. The essays respond to “Physicians, Not Conscripts — Conscientious Objection in Health Care,” Ronit Y. Stahl, Ph.D. and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, New England Journal of Medicine 376;14, April 6, 2017.

Religious Freedom Wins Today

Bristol, Tennessee, January 18, 2018–Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) applauds the decision today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to create a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division. Restoring federal enforcement of our nation’s laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom is crucial for the 19,000+ members of CMDA.

“Patient autonomy” – The Trojan Horse assault on conscience freedom in healthcare

Just as the Declaration of Geneva’s original commitment in 1948 to honor pre-born life fell to new ideology, so did the original commitment to healthcare professionals’ conscience freedom. The relevant clause in the original Declaration of Geneva read simply, “I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity.”

Johnson Amendment in the Final Tax Bill

A letter to congressional leaders from a coalition of organizations regarding the Johnson Amendment and the tax reform bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (H.R. 1).

FEMA Coalition Letter to President Trump

Coalition letter of religious and community leaders in support for S1823/H.R. 2405, the “Federal Disaster Assistance Nonprofit Fairness Act of 2017.” This legislation would ensure fair and equal treatment for houses of worship damaged in natural disasters.

CMA and Freedom2Care Applaud Administration’s Actions to Protect Conscience in Healthcare

Washington, DC—October 6, 2017 – Today the nation’s largest association of Christian health professionals, the 18,000-member Christian Medical Association (CMA, www.cmda.org) applauded the administration’s actions to restore conscience freedoms in healthcare. The administration took action concerning the Obamacare contraceptives mandate, insurance premiums used to pay for abortions, and regarding government respect for religious freedom.

Masterpiece Cakeshop Amicus Brief

Whether, consistent with the First Amendment, an individual may be compelled, under color of nondiscrimination laws, to devote his or her creative efforts to the creation of custom products or services to be used to celebrate an event or relationship that he or she believes, by reason of faith or personal conviction, is immoral.

In US Supreme Court brief, Christian Doctors Cite Conscience Conflicts Similar to Creative Artists

The nation’s largest faith-based professional association of health professionals, the Christian Medical Association (CMA, www.cmda.org), contends in a legal brief filed with the Supreme Court that its members’ conscience battles parallel those of creative artists sued for declining to participate in proceedings inconsistent with their conscience and convictions.

Christian Doctors Association Lauds Appointment of Sam Brownback as Religious Freedom Ambassador

The 18,000-member Christian Medical Association (CMA, www.cmda.org) today hailed as a “signal of new hope for persons of faith enduring persecution and oppression” the presidential appointment of Samuel Brownback of Kansas to be Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, Department of State. Mr. Brownback has been Governor of Kansas since 2011.

CMA Doctors Laud Administration’s Common Sense Approach to Contraceptives and the First Amendment

The nation’s largest faith-based association of doctors, the Christian Medical Association (www.cmda.org), today urged the Trump administration to follow through on a promised common sense contraceptives policy, outlined in a document leaked yesterday, that accommodates First Amendment freedom of religious exercise. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would implement the new policy under the leadership of Sec. Tom Price, a physician who as a Member of Congress promoted legislation to advance religious freedom.

Linking healthcare access to conscience freedoms, Christian Medical Association hails Presidential Executive Order

Washington, D.C., May 4, 2017–Citing the link between patient access to healthcare and conscience freedom for health professionals, the 18,000-member Christian Medical Association (CMA, www.cmda.org) today expressed gratitude for President Trump’s executive order that begins to provide stronger protections against discrimination against individuals and organizations of faith.

Federal Policy Top Priorities in 2017

The Washington Office of CMDA focuses on the fundamental issues of the right to life and freedom of faith, conscience and speech, which serve as the foundation for all other rights and freedoms. Here are some of the top priorities for the new year.

Political Parties Contrasted on Life Issues

Both major political parties recently issued new platforms that communicate contrasting core values to the American people. Following is a breakdown of where each party stands on the life issues of particular concern to readers of this blog: abortion, sex education, embryos and stem cell research and assisted suicide.

The Court of Last Resort

Though I have two in my extended family, I never wanted to be a lawyer. But I admit, I have desired more legal knowledge over the last few months as CMDA has taken legal action as a last resort to deal with threats to our members and our patients.

Assisted Suicide Trend Portends Thousands of Deaths

“In the past two years the number of deaths as a result of physician-assisted suicide in Oregon has nearly doubled,” said Ryan T. Anderson, who researches and writes on physician-assisted suicide at The Heritage Foundation.

Questions Arise in Brittany Maynard’s Suicide

The fact that she ultimately took her own life the next day, just 24 hours after saying she wasn’t really ready, is still one of the most perplexing twists in the saga surrounding her life and death. Now, a psychologist who is affiliated with a group working to stop a bill in the legislature in California, Maynard’s home state, from legalizing assisted suicide, is asking some serious question about whether Maynard may have been pressured by her family to commit suicide before she was truly prepared to do so.

The Point Washington Update – February 2015

Commentary and update on the state of legislative activities in Washington involving CMDA member interests.

Christian Doctor’s Digest – November 2014

Dr. David Stevens’ guests on this edition of Christian Doctor’s Digest include John Stonestreet about a thoughtful approach to same-sex marriage, Jonathan Imbody on the healthcare right of conscience and Drs. Charles Smith and John Elsen with a walk down memory lane.

What the Hobby Lobby Ruling Means to People of Faith

The Times wrongly asserts that the Supreme Court’s decision on the Obamacare contraceptives mandate “could embolden employers to assert a ‘religious’ right to deny other health benefits to their employees — from immunization to blood transfusions to psychotherapy — or to discriminate in other ways.

CMA Doctors Hail Supreme Court Mandate Ruling, Decry Ongoing Targeting of Faith Community

The 15,000-member Christian Medical Association, the nation’s largest and oldest faith-based doctors’ organization, today praised the Supreme Court’s ruling in two Health and Human Services (HHS) Obamacare mandate cases but noted “increasing attempts by the government to coerce the faith community.” CMA had outlined the medical aspects underlying religious objections to the HHS Obamacare mandate in its friend of the court brief in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood v. Burwell.

Cheering Free Speech Supreme Court Decision, Christian Doctors Warn of Government Enforcement of Ideology

“The Court simply reaffirmed that the First Amendment’s protection of peaceful speech and assembly is a cornerstone of this nation,” explained CMA CEO Dr. David Stevens. “Hopefully such decisions will begin to address the alarming growth of coercive assaults on the free speech of anyone deemed not politically correct by the government.”

The Point Washington Update – April 2014 (Second Edition)

Commentary and update on the state of legislative activities in Washington involving CMDA member interests. In this edition of The Point: CMDA members, staff raise awareness of human trafficking, CMDA members in NEJM on conscience, and New health care reform agenda.

Two courageous Families Fight for Our Freedoms at Supreme Court

The Obama administration and its opponents are renewing the Supreme Court battle over President Barack Obama’s healthcare law in a case that pits the religious rights of employers against women obtaining birth control of choice paid by their employers. This op-ed piece by CMA’s VP for Government Relations Jonathan Imbody was recently published by FoxNews.

Healthcare Right of Conscience

“Legislative Efforts to Improve Healthcare” with Senator Tom Coburn and “Supreme Court Decisions on Healthcare Right of Conscience and Religious Freedom” with Casey Mattox

Hobby Lobby Conestoga vs. Sebelius

It is undisputed that a new, distinct human organism comes into existence during the process of fertilization. Many drugs and devices labeled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as “contraception,” however, have post-fertilization mechanisms of action— which means that these drugs and devices work after a new human organism is created (at fertilization) but before implantation.

Christian Doctor’s Digest – October 2013

Exploring difficult situations. Matt Anderson, MD shares his story of being fired for presenting a Christian talk at his hospital and the Right of Conscience battle that ensued. Byron Calhoun, MD discusses perinatal hospice and the difficult journey of losing a child. Then Rob Moll shares from his book The Art of Dying.

Elanore McCullen, et al., Petitioners, v. Martha Coakley, Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts- Brief

The Massachusetts Statute and Hill v. Colorado Violate the Core of the Public Forum Doctrine That Is Rooted in the Right of Assembly. The iconic image of a sidewalk protest epitomizes our “profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.

The Point Washington Update – March 2013

Commentary and update on the state of legislative activities in Washington involving CMDA member interests. In this edition of The Point: CMA human trafficking commentary published in Washington Times, House pushed to pass conscience protections, and Miss America promotes sexual risk avoidance education.

Korte vs. Health & Human Services Brief

Amici—which include for-profit companies as well as national healthcare non-profit organizations, discussed below—share a common conviction: so-called “emergency contraception” can end the life of a developing human being.

HHS Mandate Terms Unacceptable

CMA CEO Dr. David Stevens said, “This latest version of the contraceptives and sterilization mandate remains unacceptable. Since when does the government get to pick and choose which groups will get to enjoy First Amendment protections? Our founders intended the First Amendment to protect every American’s freedom to act according to one’s conscience. They didn’t specify that only groups deemed religious will be afforded this protection; freedom of conscience applies equally to all Americans.”

Religious Freedom in Healthcare: Navigating the New Era

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to negate the votes of millions of citizens and unilaterally mandate same-sex marriage nationwide threatens to undermine centuries of First Amendment protections, including conscience freedoms for faith-based healthcare professionals.