The End of Roe v. Wade by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-22T16:00:00+00:00

10

KANSAS

ALWAYS LET YOUR CONSCIENCE BE YOUR GUIDE

In the Disney version of Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket tries to keep the fumbling puppet on the straight and narrow path, telling the wooden boy that he should let his “conscience” tell him what to do. “When you get in trouble and you don’t know right from wrong … Give a little whistle! And always let your conscience be your guide,” Jiminy Cricket eagerly advises. It’s a simple message that makes most decisions black or white, avoiding any potential gray areas and providing comfort in moral absolutism. This absolutism has been taken to its extreme in the state of Kansas, where conscience trumps all when it comes to decisions involving reproductive health and autonomy, no matter how tangentially the “provider” is involved.

Conscience clauses have long played a role in medicine, primarily in Catholic hospitals and health clinics, where doctors and nurses have refused to provide birth control or emergency contraception, offer sterilizations or terminate pregnancies. Meant to protect a religious medical provider from participating in something that could be viewed as a moral sin, conscience waivers reflected a paternalistic attitude that went hand in hand with the belief that women weren’t able to make their own medical decisions, and needed a man—whether it be a husband, father or religious advisor—to provide guidance and permission.

These clauses were originally seen as protecting the individual rights of people affiliated with religious institutions, but as anti-abortion advocates ramped up their fight on choice over the past several decades, these clauses expanded to allow entire corporate health care systems to refuse to supply services or abide by non-discrimination policies that conflict with their religious beliefs. As religiously-affiliated groups and Catholic hospitals in particular have taken over larger portions of the health care system, as well as a greater share of the clinics that provide day to day and preventative care for lower income and uninsured individuals, religious doctrine and dogma have created serious roadblocks to patient care and safety. For example, many Catholic hospitals refuse to allow the termination of pregnancies that endanger the mother’s life, dallying over how far a pregnant person’s health must deteriorate before an abortion is no longer a mortal sin but instead a lifesaving procedure. Those who approve such terminations are often at the mercy of church officials, who not only review the case, but also decide if the medical practitioner involved has earned excommunication from the church based on his or her actions.

The issue came to a head in 2009, when an Arizona nun approved a lifesaving abortion in a Catholic hospital for a mother of three who was eleven weeks pregnant. The hospital medical board ruled that due to the woman’s pulmonary hypertension, continuing the pregnancy would likely have killed her, and recommended an abortion before the fetus developed further and placed additional stress on the woman’s heart. Because of this decision, Sister Margaret McBride was reassigned from serving on the ethics committee of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, as well as excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

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