Catholic Medical Association Opposes H.R. 8373 “The Right to Contraception Act”

Philadelphia, PA-September 26, 2022-  Catholic Medical Association opposes H.R. 8373, “The Right to Contraception Act” and similar bills which include provisions relating to contraception and “emergency” contraception. 

When considered in light of recent HHS and Office of Civil Rights Guidance, CMA is concerned that the creation of a “right to contraception” in Federal law could be used to coerce doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, and other healthcare practitioners to provide services which violate their consciences.

Additionally, CMA recognizes the act may disproportionally affect pharmacists who dispense medications. Pharmacists are currently a target of groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Women’s Law Center, who urge patients to report pharmacists to their state board of pharmacy if they refuse to fill and/or transfer a prescription for a multitude of reasons. 

This legislation fails to recognize situations in which a pharmacist may, for reasons of conscience or otherwise, rightly judge that such methods, supplies, or information relating to contraception are unethical or harmful to their patient populations. Moreover, it omits the right of pharmacists to refuse participation in referrals for interventions that they deem inappropriate.

The right of access to contraception and abortion is not an intrinsic right of the human person. Rather, the rights of individuals to act in accordance with the truth and healthcare professionals to “do no harm” must be recognized in the area of reproductive health.

Pharmacists and other providers are becoming increasingly pressured by laws and professional societies to compromise their conscience and beliefs. These pressures force pharmacists and other healthcare providers to leave their careers or opt out of pursuing the field of pharmacy, lessening both diversity in the healthcare workforce and provider access for patients seeking care which aligns with their beliefs.

CMA is dedicated to protecting all healthcare professionals involved in the medication use process. CMA calls on the United States Congress as well as every state legislature to enact strong conscience rights and religious freedom protections for their state’s pharmacists and healthcare providers. The CMA and its many like-minded partner organizations are committed to this fight for conscience rights and religious freedom.

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Catholic Medical Association Supports Pharmacists’ Right of Conscientious and Religious Objection

Philadelphia, PA-September 23, 2022- Catholic Medical Association supports the rights of pharmacists in all settings to refuse to provide pharmaceutical services that conflict with their conscience and/or religious beliefs.

With the ever-changing landscape of laws and regulations governing pharmacy practice, the CMA wishes to bring clarity to issues which significantly affect pharmacists.

In response to the HHS “Guidance to Nation’s Retail Pharmacies”, the CMA opposes any attempts to undermine the religious freedoms of pharmacists by characterizing refusal to fill based on one’s conscience as discrimination. While HHS and OCR have responsibilities of enforcement of civil rights, a “right to contraception” or a “right to emergency contraception” does not exist.

Additionally, the examples provided in the document which insinuate what must be stocked in a pharmacy lest it be considered discrimination are an egregious affront to independent pharmacy owners, who operate within the regulations of their states and who wish to avoid providing services that violate their conscience and religious beliefs.

HHS side-steps the protections afforded by the Church Amendments to all healthcare personnel to be free of discrimination for refusing to assist in abortion, sterilization, or to be free of forced participation in any part of a Federally funded health service program.

Much like physicians who do not wish to provide methods which they judge as harmful or immoral, or nurses who do not wish to assist in such situations, determinations by pharmacists not to fill a prescription for reasons of conscience does not constitute discrimination. Rather, it demonstrates the just decision of a pharmacist to only partake in actions which they deem to be in accordance with the patient’s and society’s good.

The professional practice of pharmacy, like medicine, requires accountability of practitioners to ensure positive patient outcomes through balancing the multitude of complex factors involved in each service they provide.

Pharmacist practitioners must retain the freedom to practice in accordance with their values and beliefs in order to maintain a therapeutic relationship of trust between them and their patients.

CMA wishes to recognize our pharmacist members, and those outside of our organization who object to cooperation in any act they deem immoral. CMA is dedicated to protecting all healthcare professionals involved in the medication use process.

CMA calls on every state legislature to enact strong conscience rights and religious freedom protections for their state’s pharmacists. The CMA and its many like-minded partner organizations are committed to this fight for conscience rights and religious freedom.