(CNSNews.com) – Health care professionals on Wednesay urged President Barack Obama not to rescind the "conscience clause" -- the Health and Human Services (HHS) regulation that bars federally funded groups from discriminating against  medical workers who, for moral reasons, refuse to perform medical procedures such as abortion and prescribing the "morning-after" pill. 

Doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals wearing white coats and green scrubs spoke at the National Press Club on Wednesday.

The event came one day before the end of the 30-day public comment period on the HHS regulation.  After midnight on Apr. 9  the Obama administration could remove the “Right to Conscience” rule from HHS regulations. The regulation was put into place on the last day of the Bush administration.
 
“If anyone should understand the ugliness of discrimination, it is our first African American president,” Dr. David Stevens, CEO of the Christian Medical Association, told CNSNews.com. “My prayer is that he will wake up to what is really going on and let these regulations stand.”
 
What is happening, Stevens and other health care professionals said, is an ongoing campaign to discriminate against doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other medical workers who oppose performing procedures or filling prescriptions for religious reasons. They said some conscientious objectors are not being admitted to medical schools and are being passed over for promotions.
 
Stevens said the impetus for health care professionals and members of Congress to lobby for the “Right to Conscience” rule came in 2007 when the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) put into place an ethics ruling about religious objections.
 
“What really precipitated those regulations was when ACOG came out and said there was an ethical mandate for [a doctor or pharmacist] to refer” patients to a colleague who does not object, Stevens said. But even referring patients to someone else is seen by Stevens and others as condoning the practices they oppose.
 
 “If you didn’t refer, you had to move your practice close to somebody who could do the abortion,” Stevens said.
 
The purpose of the regulation, put into place by then-HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, is summarized on the HHS Web site:
 
“Clarify that non-discrimination protections apply to institutional health care providers as well as to individual employees working for recipients of certain funds from HHS;
 
“Require recipients of certain HHS funds to certify their compliance with laws protecting provider conscience rights;
 
“Designate the HHS Office for Civil Rights as the entity to receive complaints of discrimination addressed by the existing statutes and the proposed regulation; and

"Charge HHS officials to work with any state or local government or entity that may be in violation of existing statutes and the proposed regulation to encourage voluntary steps to bring that government or entity into compliance with the law. If, despite the Department’s efforts, compliance is not achieved, HHS officials will consider all legal options, including termination of funding and the return of funds paid out in violation of the nondiscrimination provisions.”

The results of a nationwide poll by The Polling Company/Woman Trend of 800 adults, 18 or older, and 2,865 members of faith-based health care professional organizations also was unveiled at the press conference.
 
The poll found that 87 percent of the adults said they think health care professionals should not be forced to participate in procedures and practices that they morally oppose – a number that represents people across the political spectrum.
 
The survey of health care professionals showed nearly three quarters, or 74 percent, believed that elimination of the conscience regulation would result in fewer doctors practicing medicine, and 66 percent said it would decrease access to medical treatment to patients in low-income areas. The survey also found that 58 percent of those surveyed predicted a reduction in hospitals providing services.
 
The coalition of faith-based health care professionals, Freedom2Care, has asked to meet with President Obama to discuss their concerns, but as of Wednesday had not been informed that such a meeting would take place.
 
They asked for the meeting in a letter that included some of the polling data and a plea from the men and women in their profession.
 
“We hope that you will take the time to meet with us, as health care professionals who, on a daily basis, confront difficult decisions and circumstances yet seek to adhere to the principles we took as doctors to protect and preserve life,” the letter said.
 
Critics charge the regulation will impose sweeping changes that will limit access to medical care, especially reproductive health care, for millions of Americans.
 
But Stevens said the opposite is true and that protecting the conscience of health care providers goes far beyond reproductive health care.
 
“This issue is not just about abortion,” he said. “Right of conscience will become increasingly important with other health care issues looming ahead – euthanasia, genetic engineering, human cloning and many more.”
 
Others who spoke at the conference included Dr. Sandy Christiansen, a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist and medical director of Care Net Pregnancy Center in Frederick, Maryland; Dr. David F. Thompson, director of the Center for Infrastructure Protection at the George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Va.; Dr. John Bruchalski, founder of the Tepeyac Family Center in Fairfax, Va.; and Kellyanne Conway, president and CEO of The Polling Company/Woman Trend.

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