(Cheyenne, WY) – A bill sponsored by Wyoming Rep. Pepper Ottman, R-Riverton, to protect the conscience rights of medical professionals has passed the Wyoming House of Representatives with no amendments.
House Bill 222 – Medical Ethics Defense Act-2, would give health care professionals, health care institutions, and health care payers the right not to participate in or pay for health care services that violate their conscience.
The legislation also lets religious-based health care organizations make decisions consistent with their religious beliefs, and it prohibits discrimination for making health care decisions based on conscience.
“I’m bringing this bill because every American should have the freedom to live according to their ethical and religious beliefs – (including) our medical professionals,” Ottman told the House Labor, Health and Social Services Committee last month.
She shared a survey with the committee showing that 90 percent of “doctors of faith say they would rather stop practicing medicine than violate their ethical, moral, or religious beliefs” and 20 percent of medical students “have chosen not to practice in a certain field because of hostility towards their beliefs in that area of practice.”
“Many of (those students are) aspiring OBGYNs, which Wyoming is lacking,” Ottman pointed out. “This bill would protect Wyoming’s healthcare professionals and help attract more to our state.”
Later, she told the committee that there are already instances in Wyoming where medical students – like those enrolled in the nursing program at Central Wyoming College – are “required to do things that they do not want to do.”
“We also do have doctors that have been fired for showing their medical conscience,” she said. “This (bill provides) their First Amendment rights of conscience to do what they would like to do in their field of expertise.”
The House Labor Committee voted 7-1 in favor of HB 222, with Wyoming Rep. Joel Guggenmos, R-Riverton, voting “ay” along with Ottman.
Questions
When HB 222 was introduced on the House Floor this month, Wyoming Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, asked what would happen if a patient arrived at a rural state facility requesting a procedure that no staff members were willing to perform due to religious beliefs.
“What obligation then do we have to that individual?” Larsen asked. “We have to provide healthcare to them. … How do we get around that?”
In response, Ottman said medical professionals would likely choose not to work for institutions that are required to perform procedures that go against their conscience.
Instead, she said, those medical professionals could open their own business and “not do certain procedures” that don’t align with their “moral and ethical and conscious beliefs.”
“This is freedom for a person,” Ottman said. “This is not to say nobody is going to wait on people (and) people are going to be dying in the emergency rooms. … This has nothing to do with that and would never do that. Our healthcare professionals are professionals. People that go into that line or work are kind, caring people, or they wouldn’t be doing it, because it’s not an easy job. … So this is not to harm anyone – it is to do no harm and to be able to work in a workplace where my morals and ethics are taken into consideration.”
Following up on that response, Larsen asked whether the director of a state-run facility could be sued for discrimination if they fired an employee who refused to perform a required procedure.
That question wasn’t answered before HB 222 passed on first reading.
The House approved HB 222 on second and third readings this month as well, with all of Fremont County’s local representatives voting in favor of the bill.
HB 222 was received for introduction in the Wyoming Senate on Feb. 12.
The last day for bills to be reported out of committee in the second house is Feb. 27.