In a move right out of the Planned Parenthood playbook, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the new rules guaranteeing protection for doctors and other health-care workers who refuse to participate in abortions.
Sadly, Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch joined the lawsuit claiming it was about “Rhode Island’s ability and sovereign right to enforce its laws.”
In December 2008, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published regulations that would ensure that recipients of federal funds must comply with long-standing federal conscience protection laws. Then Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt suggested that the regulations were “not about abortion or contraceptives, but the legal right medical practitioners have to practice according to their conscience.” These regulations further enhance longstanding laws that allow health care workers to exercise their conscience by not participating in actions they deem immoral or religiously objectionable.
Rhode Island has a long tradition of protecting conscience rights for health care workers from participating in morally objectionable actions. However, the Attorney General’s recent decision to join this lawsuit will undermine this strong tradition and place Catholics and others of good will in harm’s way. Lynch’s decision to join the lawsuit is a political decision to placate Planned Parenthood and other agents of the culture of death rather than working to protect the conscience rights of Rhode Islanders. It has been said that “with great power comes great responsibility.” Attorney General Patrick Lynch has great power and a responsibility to protect conscience rights.
