Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
The ACLU recently filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) against a private, religious health care system because it declined to sterilize a woman, an alleged violation of Obamacare.
The woman who complained asked for the procedure at Genesys Regional Health Center, a Roman Catholic hospital. According to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, sterilizing men or women is “intrinsically immoral.”
In a letter (PDF) to HHS, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) contended that federal law prohibits religious health care providers like Genesys from being forced to violate their consciences. The hospital is not obligated to render the woman sterile.
ADF attorney Ken Connelly said no one “should be forced to perform or participate in a procedure when doing so would violate their conscience. This is especially true of medical workers and health care systems who are in the profession largely because of—and as an extension of—their faith.”
The ACLU previously sued to persuade the government to force a Roman Catholic hospital system to kill unborn babies. A federal court dismissed the lawsuit.
