Hi ,
Did you know that some publicly funded hospitals can refuse to offer some health services?
No prizes for guessing which hospitals and which health services. Yes, it's the religiously run hospitals that refuse to services
like abortion or voluntary assisted dying ... or even contraception!
These hospitals claim 'corporate conscientious objection' - as if a corporation could have a conscience! Organisations don't have consciences, people do.
A bill to address this discriminatory state of affairs is to be debated in the Victorian parliament next week, on the 17 August. It's called the Health Legislation (Conscientious Objection) Bill.
The Victorian Health Services Act 1988 distinguishes two types of public hospital: ordinary public hospitals and denominational hospitals (ie, religiously run hospitals). And while ordinary public hospitals provide all legal health services, religiously run hospitals are given exemptions in
certain areas. For example:
- The Mercy Hospital for Women does a Caesarean to deliver a baby, but refuses the mother's request that they do a tubal ligation at the same time.
- A patient injured in an accident and admitted to St Vincent's could be told the St V's pharmacy would not fulfil a repeat of her contraceptive pill scrip.
- A terminally ill person admitted to Calvary Health Care Bethlehem could be denied information if they asked about voluntary assisted
dying.
These legal requests would be fulfilled in an 'ordinary' public hospital but religiously governed hospitals are exempted from having to provide these ordinary services because they claim conscientious objection. Surely this discriminatory situation should not continue.
If these hospitals are funded by the public purse, they should serve the public interest.
What can you do?
As always, it's important the parliament knows how members of the public think and feel about proposals put before it.
The proposed bill will oblige publicly funded denominational hospitals to provide the full range of lawful services, including those relating to contraception, abortion, and voluntary assisted dying. (Privately funded hospitals would not be affected by this bill, just publicly funded ones.)
It would also prevent the management of a denominational hospital telling a doctor or nurse working there that, as a properly accredited professional, they must not provide such services.
Now, you can be sure religionists will organise to flood MPs with emails opposing this bill.
But we know
from the last census that people choosing 'No Religion' are now the largest demographic belief group in Australia. It is intolerable that publicly funded hospitals, overseen by religious orders, can deny us legal health services.
Please click on the
button below and email your support for the Health Legislation (Conscientious Objection) Bill.
