Pennsylvania Code › Title 16 - COMMUNITY AFFAIRS › Part II - Governor's Office › Subpart A - Human Relations Commission › Chapter 51 - DISCRIMINATION WITH RESPECT TO ABORTION AND STERILIZATION › RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF INDIVIDUALS › Section 51.41 - Written objection to performance, participation in or cooperation in abortion or sterilization procedures

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
(a) Pursuant to section 5.2(a) of the act
					 (43
					 P. S. §
												955.2(a)), any
					 physician, nurse, staff member, or employe of a hospital or other health care
					 facility who objects to performing, participating in, or cooperating in
					 abortion or sterilization procedures on moral, religious or professional
					 grounds and who, for such reasons, does not wish to participate or cooperate in
					 the performance of such procedures shall clearly set forth such objection in
					 writing and shall submit the objection to the board of directors, governing
					 body, or administrator in charge of such institution. Unless such a written
					 objection is submitted, under section 5.2(a) of the act (43 P. S. §
												955.2(a)), a staff member
					 will be presumed to have no objection to participation or cooperation in the
					 performance of abortion or sterilization procedures on moral, religious, or
					 professional grounds, and shall not be subject to the protections set forth in
					 that section. If such a written objection is duly submitted to the proper
					 authority, no such staff member shall be required to or held liable for refusal
					 to perform, participate in, or cooperate in abortion or sterilization
					 procedures.
(b) Individuals
					 performing or participating in abortion or sterilization procedures are those
					 physicians, nurses, staff members, or employes of a hospital or other health
					 care facility who are directly involved in such a procedure and are in
					 attendance at the time when and in the room where the procedure takes place and
					 without whose services the procedure itself could not be performed.
(c) Individuals cooperating in abortion or
					 sterilization procedures are those physicians, nurses, staff members, or
					 employes of a hospital or other health care facility, whether or not directly
					 involved in such procedures or in attendance at the time when and in the room
					 where the procedure takes place, whose duties are of a type peculiar to
					 abortion or sterilization procedures and without whose services the procedure
					 itself could not be performed. Examples of "cooperation" include assistance
					 rendered by a nurse, staff member, or employe or a hospital of health care
					 facility to a doctor in performing the abortion procedure; rendering of the
					 services of an anesthetist or anesthesiologist in connection with the abortion
					 procedure; disposal of or assistance in the disposal of aborted fetuses;
					 cleaning the instruments used in the abortion or sterilization procedure.
					 Examples of duties and conduct which would not constitute "cooperation"
					 include: functioning in ancillary services, such as food preparation, to serve
					 the patient, ordinary services of housekeeping and dietary personnel; cleaning
					 of the room used in the abortion procedure following the abortion; record
					 keeping by clerical personnel; installation of or repairs to electrical,
					 plumbing, or heating facilities in surgical areas; performance by a laboratory
					 technician of blood tests upon a patient prior to abortion upon that patient;
					 involvement of a nurse, staff member, or employe in the caring for a patient in
					 any preparatory procedure leading to abortion or in the postabortion period of
					 the patient.
(d) Pursuant to the
					 procedures set forth in this section, any physician, nurse, staff member, or
					 employe of a hospital or other health care facility may submit a written
					 limited objection to performing, participating in, or cooperating in particular
					 types of abortion procedures or abortion procedures performed after a certain
					 number of weeks of gestation, and such person may thereby obtain the
					 protections afforded by section 5.2(a) of the act (43 P. S. §
												955.2(a)), to the extent set
					 forth in such limited objection.
This section cited in 16 Pa. Code §
													51.44 (relating to reasonable
						  accommodation to rights of
						  employes).