During the past thirty years, the U.S. Congress has enacted a series of conscience clauses that protect health care providers from being compelled to provide abortion if doing so would violate their ethical or religious beliefs. The most recent conscience clause – the Weldon Conscience Protection Amendment – specifically protects institutional health care providers. Since 2005 it has been re-enacted annually as a rider to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. Preserving “Weldon” will continue to be an advocacy imperative for the Alliance as Catholic hospitals in California operate in a political and governmental environment that is largely hostile to legal protections for health care providers that object to providing abortions.
Search Site
Current Issues
During the past thirty years, the U.S. Congress has enacted a series of conscience clauses that protect health care providers from being compelled to provide abortion if doing so would violate their ethical or religious beliefs. The most recent conscience clause – the Weldon Conscience Protection Amendment – specifically protects institutional health care providers. Since 2005 it has been re-enacted annually as a rider to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. Preserving “Weldon” will continue to be an advocacy imperative for the Alliance as Catholic hospitals in California operate in a political and governmental environment that is largely hostile to legal protections for health care providers that object to providing abortions.
