But, this bill is so broadly written that any health care provider, from the administrator to the doctor, to the aide who helps a patient in and out of bed, can refuse to participate in any service on any professional, ethical, moral or religious grounds. There are no definitions for either the types of services or, more importantly, what specifically is meant by ethical, moral or religious grounds. In the South in the 60s, religious beliefs in the separation of the races did not justify the refusal of white restaurant owners to serve black patrons. Nor did the U.S. Supreme Court find it permissible for Bob Jones University, which employed racially discriminatory admission policies because of its belief that the Bible forbids interracial dating and marriage, to discriminate and continue to receive a tax-exempt status. I raise these particular cases of racial discrimination to illustrate the potential of HB 5290 and to make you aware of how it opens the door for discrimination in any number of ways within the health care service.
Discrimination can take on many forms.
It can be about race, ethnicity, disabilities, lifestyle differences or any activity that one may find objectionable on personally religious, ethical or moral grounds. A law cannot exempt institutions or individuals from generally applicable anti-discrimination laws when the practices that are subject to such laws are secular in nature, and allowing an exemption would result in the imposition of religious, ethical or moral tenets on others who do not share these beliefs. In the case examples I've given, the individual or entity claiming an exemption has chosen to engage in the secular practices that are subject to general anti-discrimination laws. Health care providers who serve the general public are no different than a restaurant or a university. To permit exemptions in these contexts would allow religious, ethical or moral beliefs to pervade the functioning of civil society in ways fundamentally unfair to those who do not share the tenets in question.