As Trump Admin Prepares to Bolster Religious Refusal Laws, Reproductive Equity Now Urges CT to Protect Providers Offering Health Care Information, Emergency Abortion
HHS Secretary today released a statement announcing that the Department will reevaluate and bolster federal conscience and religious refusal laws
HARTFORD (January 29, 2024) – On Monday, the Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Dr. Dorothy Fink released a statement announcing that the Department will be reevaluating its regulations and guidance pertaining to federal laws on conscience and religious exercise. These laws, which advocates expect the Trump administration to prioritize and bolster, have been used to deny patients basic reproductive health care services, including abortion.
In response, Reproductive Equity Now Connecticut State Director Liz Gustafson released the following statement emphasizing the urgent need for Connecticut to pass legislation to protect providers, who choose to offer patients referrals for or information about reproductive health care, from professional discipline or discrimination when that information may be in conflict with their employing institutions’ religious or conscientious objections. The state also must ensure hospitals continue to provide emergency abortion care in the potential absence of federal protections under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).
“Trump’s latest attack on bodily autonomy involves manipulating federal protections on conscience and religious exercise to allow health care institutions to deny patients the essential health care they need and deserve,” said Liz Gustafson, Connecticut State Director of Reproductive Equity Now. “Health care should always be about patients, not ideology. Here in Connecticut, we are proud of our long standing commitment to protecting and expanding access to reproductive health care. That is why Reproductive Equity Now looks forward to continuing our work with the Public Health Committee and legislative champions to advance legislation that ensures health care institutions, including religiously affiliated hospitals, do not prohibit providers from providing medically-accurate information regarding a patient’s health status, counseling, and referrals for care that may not align with an institution’s moral or religious beliefs. We also must ensure that health care institutions continue to provide emergency pregnancy-related care in the potential absence of federal protections through EMTALA. We believe every person deserves access to accurate information and referrals so they can make their own informed health care decisions—free from political or ideological interference.”
Federal religious refusal laws allow any provider, health care professional, or health care institution involved in patient care to refuse that care based on religious, moral, or conscientious objection. Providers at certain health institutions can also face discipline, reprisal, or other discriminatory action by their employer for simply giving their patients medically accurate information about their health and where they can access care.
Across the country, there are approximately 600 Catholic general hospitals, and four of the ten largest U.S. hospital chains, ranked by number of beds, are Catholic. In Connecticut, this includes Trinity Health, which operates St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Saint Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford Springs, and Mount Sinai Rehabilitation Hospital in Hartford. As of 2016, these four Catholic hospitals comprised 17.7% of all hospital beds in Connecticut, and in 2023 attended 3,167 births. Medicare and Medicaid enrollees comprise over 65% of their total patient admissions.
Patients seeking abortion care can visit Reproductive Equity Now’s New England Abortion Care Guide to find clinics and hospitals that provide abortion care.
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