Statement Supporting Repeal of Provider Refusal Rule Expansion

The United Methodist Church General Board of Church & Society (GBCS) supports the repeal of the Bush administration’s expansion of the 30-year-old “Provider Refusal Rule.”

GBCS has been concerned that the expansion, which was implemented during the Bush administration’s final days, could negatively affect both men’s and women’s access to critical health services.

The United Methodist Church strongly believes health care is a basic human right. Our Social Principles state that providing the care needed to maintain health, prevent disease and restore health after injury or illness “is a responsibility each person owes others and government owes to all.”

During his ministry, Jesus personified this basic human right by providing healing and care to those he met, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, gender or station in society.

The Provider Refusal Law already ensures that health-care providers do not have to provide abortion and sterilization services if doing so contradicts their religious or moral beliefs. The law could have been improved to ensure that patients are never denied access to needed health-care services and information, which The United Methodist Church believes is a basic human right.

Instead, President Bush went too far. He extended it beyond abortion and sterilization to contraception, fertility treatments, end-of-life care, and many other health-care services. By limiting access to birth control, the expansion of the conscience clause actually hurts efforts to prevent unintended pregnancies and reduce the need for abortion.

His expansion also permits providers to withhold relevant information from patients. Most disconcerting, he extended the right to refuse service based on conscience to virtually anyone in the health-care system, not just doctors and nurses. And, the rule was extended beyond hospitals to encompass HMOs, PPOs and health insurance plans.

The federal statues already in effect were clear and have proved themselves useful over nearly three decades. A change was not needed to ensure greater awareness and enforcement. Instead, the last-minute expansion brought confusion rather than clarity, imposed unnecessary certification restrictions on economically strapped health-care institutions, and left millions of low-income patients vulnerable to being denied essential health-care services.

Broadening of “The Provider Refusal Rule” undermined the ability of organizations to guarantee that they will provide comprehensive health services. Disruption of that guarantee puts patients’ health at risk. The United Methodist Church cannot support denial of what it considers a basic human right, nor can it endorse any government action that puts the most vulnerable in our society more at risk.

As a result, we applaud President Obama’s proposal to void a hasty decision that has so many potentially negative ramifications.

— Jim Winkler, General Secretary, General Board of Church & Society