Since July 2004, health care workers in the state of Mississippi can refuse to perform almost all types of health care services if they have moral or religious grounds for this refusal. Something similar has cleared the U.S. House of Representatives last week:
[It] would prohibit local, state or federal authorities from requiring any institution or health care professional to provide abortions, pay for them, or make abortion-related referrals, even in cases of rape or medical emergency.(Bolds mine)
It's not clear what the Senate will do about this sneaked-in provision, but we should be on the alert.
The well-being of the patients is clearly at risk here. Notice that the provision would allow the health care professionals not to refer a patient in dire need to another provider, for example. This is blatant withholding of information.
I'm so furious that my attempts to write a detailed critique of this crap are futile. Read the article.