When Freedoms Collide

According to the Washington Post, the Obama administration is making plans to roll back another one of President Bush’s policies.  The policy in questions is a Bush administration regulation, enacted in December, that cuts off federal funding for thousands of state and local governments, hospitals, health plans, clinics and other entities if they do not accommodate doctors, nurses, pharmacists or other employees who refuse to participate in care they feel violates their personal, moral or religious beliefs.  Some of the areas that this regulation covers (and will cover in the future) are abortion, birth control, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, etc.  The argument for leaving the law in place is that the individuals requesting the service will be able to go elsewhere to obtain that service.  The employee has one job and a conscience and is trying to respect both.  This could actually be played out as a freedom of religion issue (for the employee). 

Rolling back this law is not a good thing.  It brings to mind what happened in Massachusetts after gay marriage became legal and the Cathollic Church adoption agencies were told they had to grant adoptions to gay parents, regardless of the church’s teachings on the subject.  As a result, the Catholic Church no longer runs adoption agencies in Massachusetts–they were simply driven out.  A valuable service they were providing was lost because their freedom to practice their religion was not upheld.