Yesterday, I read about a bill that's passed the New Hampshire House earlier in the day. (It's not law yet.) The bill, HB 1080, allows a cashier to deny someone their birth control because of their own religious beliefs.
Just to confirm this, I found opposition testimony by Planned Parenthood which says, " The bill would allow nearly any employee at any public or private health care institution, including pharmacies, to not only refuse to provide abortion, sterilization, or contraception, but also to refuse to fill prescriptions…” Moreover, even a receptionist could refuse to make an appointment. But it goes farther, not just would an employee be able to block providing services because of religious reasons but also moral ones. They write (and the boldface below is Planned Parenthood’s, not mine) – Anyone with a religious, moral or ethical objection to abortion, sterilization, or contraception services may restrict the health care that a patient may receive, undermining the patient’s right to health care. The boundaries for moral or ethical objections are not defined in the bill, resulting in limitless possibilities for providers who refuse to give essential care.” Given that it is rightly illegal to discriminate against someone on religious grounds, it oddly seems like this bill allows people for religious reasons to discriminate against those whose religious beliefs do not have the same tenets as yours. (Never mind the whole "moral" and “ethical” objection thing.) It’s hard to imagine this passing a Constitutional challenge, even with this Supreme Court, though relying on this Supreme Court for things “hard to imagine” might be a risky undertaking. Should this ever occur when trying to pay, one might consider holding up the line until the cashier got another employee to punch in the purchase. Or waiting until the receptionist got their supervisor to make your appointment. Now, of course, it’s certainly possible that any business which tolerated an employee refusing such basic services would be a business that agreed with the refusal – though unless the business made it known upfront that they would have nothing to do with abortion services, that would mean the business did not agree with their employee’s action. Which raises the question – can a business fire an employee for not doing what their job requires…or would that be firing them for religious reasons? (I would think that you can fire an employee because he or she didn’t agree with the morality or ethics of the business. I would think a court would say, “You are guaranteed your personal morals and ethics, you are not guaranteed a job. If you don’t like the morals of your job, find a new job.” You can read the Planned Parenthood response here.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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