We trust health care providers to have our best interests in mind and to make life-saving decisions based on science and best medical practices. We should not have to fear we will be turned away at the hospital doors or denied critical care because of a health provider’s personal religious beliefs. Refusing to give medical care to someone because it conflicts with the provider’s religious beliefs violates the separation of church and state.
But religious extremists and their lawmaker allies want to allow health care providers to use religion to deny medical services – even in emergencies and life-threatening situations. This particularly threatens abortion care, birth control, fertility treatments, gender-affirming and other LGBTQ+ health care, and end-of-life care.
While the Constitution protects our right to believe what we choose about certain medical procedures like abortion, fertility treatments or gender-affirming care, it does not allow us to deny care or discriminate against others based on our religious beliefs. The separation of church and state prevents religious beliefs from dictating government policies and protects individual religious expression only so long as it does not harm others. Denying available health care is harmful.
Our government should protect patients’ rights, not facilitate discrimination in our health care system.
Families and doctors, not the government, should make decisions about medical care. Gender-affirming health care bans are not about medicine – they are about discrimination.
The Do No Harm Act will ensure that religious freedom is not misused to harm others and instead protects everyone’s freedom to live as themselves and believe as they choose.
These laws discriminate by allowing medical providers to cite religion to opt out of services that conflict with their sincerely held religious, moral, or ethical beliefs. These laws are often focused on LGBTQ+ people and reproductive care.
