MomTFH-you claimed that this rule also covers cashiers at Walmart and janitors. Could you produce some evidence within the clause? It is here:
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-30134.htm

It could be there, but it just seems a bit odd that this would be the case being that this is the Department of Health and Human Services, which I don’t think has much input into commercial institutions’s cashiers (pharmacists sure, but cashiers?). But I could be wrong. I am definitely no legal scholar, and that’s a really long tract of legalese!

I think we who tend towards conservatism get so embattled over the smallest of things without realizing that we are succumbing to hipocrisy. Would conservatives jump for joy if there were a conscience clause that required religious institutions to hire people with vastly different beliefs?

I definitely see your point here.

So, for example, your local surgery center would have to hire Christian Scientists as receptionists or be seen as discriminatory. They could refuse to book your appointment. Or, they could refuse to call you back on the day of your surgery and not get anyone else to do so, letting you and every other patient scheduled for surgery sit in reception for hours and collect a nice paycheck to enforce their religion on others. A local family planning center run by the department of health that is funded for the sole purpose of providing birth control to the poor could be forced to hire every anti contraception nut who applies there or face extensive law suits.

So, it’s a big deal. There is already tons of laws, rules and statutes protecting practitioners from having to preform abortions. This has nothing to do with that.

That is always the case with everything Obama seems to be saying or doing. The man is a brilliant Harvard-trained lawyer, so he is adept at phrasing his statements to sound like promises, but upon closer examination he was using lawyerspeak to leave himself plenty of wiggle room to back out.

Case in point: The “draw down” of troops in Iraq and Obama’s supposed departure from the Bush administration’s foreign policies. RE: the Middle East, he’s primarily reshuffling the deck of soldiers and moving them to Afghanistan. Meanwhile. we will have a “residual troop presence” in Iraq of about 50,000ish….”non combat” troops of course. The troops who have been shuffled to Afghanistan will be replaced in Iraq by private contractors like Blackwater (google “Amy Goodman Obama interview”). He can then claim to have made good on his pledge to “end the war in Iraq” while we are still very much occupying that country. Mission accomplished!

I really do hope Obama follows through completely on this particular move to rescind the HHS “conscience rule”. Thus far, however, I have seen little reason to trust a word that comes out of his mouth, and I think that now more than ever those of us on the left must remain hypervigilant & prepared to fight back against Obama when necessary. He’s a smooth talker and he’s brilliant….which makes him potentially more dangerous that Bush ever was.

A doctor will likely not get fired for refusing to perform abortions. They will, however, if they refuse to refer someone to the correct personnel who will or for whatever reason refuse for that person to get any treatment (this is, clearly, a guess on my part). Alternately, if someone’s job is in jeopardy because they are following their personal moral code, then perhaps a change in employers is in order.

Another note, if someone’s religion conflicts with their views on abortion/birth control, perhaps they should not specialize in women’s care or work in a place where they may be required to perform an abortion. Just an idea. Every job has a list of expected duties, and it is the employee’s job to tell the employer straight out what they will and will not do.

I’m just a little uneasy at buddhiists, Catholics, or Muslims and Jews losing their job when they don’t want to assist with certain methods. Especially when it’s a large organization that could easily find someone else to accommodate the patient. For small companies it definitely makes sense.

Here’s one reason: because anti-choice health care workers could infiltrate and organization like Planned Parenthood, and they could do absolutely nothing about it without losing all of their federal funding.

Here’s another one: Because once those anti-choicers infiltrate, they can refuse to provide birth control, for example, or even not let women know what birth control options exists, and not every woman can just go “find another doctor” due to issues of time, money and insurance.

I have always felt that declining to hire someone who wont do certain things that may fall within the job duties was somethign every employer had a right to do.

Precisely! As they should! Under this rule, they don’t!

And, if you’re pro-choice, the last sentence of your first post kind of implies otherwise.