Health care conscience bill blasted at hearing

By Matt Pommer April 4, 2005 A tough Conscience Protection Act, promoted by abortion foes as the most comprehensive in the nation, ran into sharp criticism today at an Assembly hearing.

In prepared remarks, Judith Hartig-Osanka, state chairwoman of Republicans for Choice, assailed the measure that would prohibit health care professionals, including pharmacists and medical students, from being forced to participate in activities related to abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia, the destruction of human embryos for any purpose, and the use of body parts of aborted fetuses.

"This bill legalizes the violation of physician and pharmacist codes of ethics and is not supported by a single health care organization," Hartig-Osanka said. "It elevates an employee's rights above those of the patient, the prescribing doctor and the employer. This bill codifies discrimination against women by preventing them from having access to birth control.

"There is not one word in the bill about protecting the life and death of the patient or preventing harm to the patient," she said.

Tom Frazier, executive director of the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, said in his prepared testimony that the "bill creates an environment that disrespects the autonomy of citizens to make their own end-of-life decisions."

"Among a generation that is highly respectful of doctors, it will disempower patients and their surrogate decision-makers from making the decisions they think best for themselves," Frazier said. "The bill will permit physicians to refuse to make a good-faith effort to transfer patients when they disagree with the oral wishes of the ward, even if clearly stated and not disputed."

Backing the measure were John Huebscher, executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, and Barbara Lyons, executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life.

Huebscher said in prepared remarks that the bill addresses "many of the areas of current concern for health care professionals."

"It builds upon protections in current law. It affirms that we want health care people to be people of conscience," he continued. "It recognizes that a person's religious and moral conviction does not make them less qualified to provide health care."

Lyons said Illinois and Mississippi provide conscience rights protection "for all health care providers who conscientiously object to participate in any health care service," adding, "In today's world more and more health care providers find that some health care practices raise serious moral concerns."

Andy Cohn, governmental relations director for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, said the bill would hamper the embryonic stem cell work of the WiCell Research Institute.

The bill "contains provisions that would put unreasonable constraints, both economic and procedural, on how we are able to conduct our business," Cohn said. The institute and the university are "recognized as world leaders" in this research, he added.

The State Bar of Wisconsin warned in a statement that the bill "would create an anti-discrimination law that is different from any other anti-discrimination law on the books in any state or in federal law. This bill appears to give the employee absolute power."

There will be no vote on the bill today, but one is possible within the next few weeks, a clerk said.

Last year, Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed a less sweeping conscience bill. He said it could have limited access to medical care, especially in rural areas. He noted that state law allows health care providers to avoid participating in abortions or sterilizations. Doyle noted the bill would allow a physician to ignore details of a living will.

In last year's veto message Doyle wrote: "This bill should be called the 'Unconscionable Clause' because it would be unconscionable to deny our citizens the full range of needed medical treatment in order to satisfy the ideological views of some health care professionals."

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