Abortion conscience clauses memo, September 25, 2002

MEMO From: WPG, CAW To: RLE,SLK September 25, 2002 Re: History of Abortion Conscience Clauses Federal and State HISTORY In 1996, Congress adopted the Coats Amendment, [vii] The amendment prohibits the government from “discriminating” against medical residency programs or other entities that lose accreditation because they fail to provide or require training in abortion services. The amendment was passed after the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education adopted a professional standard requiring residency programs in obstetrics and gynecology to provide abortion training. Under the standard applicable at that time, residency programs or physicians with religious or moral objections could opt out of the required abortion training, although programs remained responsible for insuring that willing residents received abortion training at another institution. The Coats Amendment established that the government could not “discriminate” against a medical residency program solely on the basis of the program”s refusal to train new doctors in abortion practice or to refer them elsewhere for such training, even when a residency program lost its accreditation because of its failure to offer training. In 1997, Congress adopted new statutory requirements for the Medicaid program that, among other things, mandated that states inform patients about how to obtain covered services — including family planning services — that their Medicaid managed care organization did not provide, [viii] Congress made clear, however, that the new provisions did not require a Medicaid managed care organization to provide, reimburse, or cover any counseling or referral service to which th organization objects on moral or religious grounds.[ix] In 1998, Congress passed a hard-fought provision that required health plans participating in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program ("FEHBP”) — which provides health insurance for federal employees — to cover prescription contraceptive drugs and devices.[x] Federal employees can generally choose from a wide variety of participating plans. Congress explicitly exempted from the requirement five religiously affiliated health plans that were then FEHBP participants. It also created an exemption for “any existing or future plan, if the plan objects to such coverage on the basis of religious beliefs.” (In the years since, no additional plan has requested a religious exemption.) And, in 1999, the House voted against an amendment offered by Representative Chris Smith that would have broadened the exemption to plans that object to contraceptive coverage on the basis of “moral beliefs.” H.R. 3019 - FY 1996 Omnibus Appropriations - 3/7/1996 RLE aye: 209-206 -This bill added the provision which created the base text for federal Conscience Clause H.R. 4691, the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act of 2002 clarifies and changes. Sec. 515. Part В of title П of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 238 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following section: ”