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HYDE-SMITH, COLLEAGUES CALL ON HEALTH AGENCIES TO PROTECT MEDICAL RESIDENTS’ CONSCIENCE RIGHTS
Pro-Life Senators, House Members Challenge ‘Opt-Out’ Criteria for Medical Residents Who Oppose Abortions
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, joined fellow pro-life lawmakers in urging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to take immediate regulatory action to protect the conscience rights of medical residents enrolled in graduate medical education programs.
In a letter sent to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, the group of Senate and House members strongly encourage HHS and CMS to address accreditation rules that pressure OB/GYN residents to participate in abortion training against their conscience. The lawmakers call for an opt-in approach that protects conscience rights while allowing training for those who choose it.
“Returning training in induced abortion to an opt-in option for medical trainees would still allow for anyone who desired this training to easily access it but would prevent any physician who does not from being coerced into participating. Not only is this what our conscience laws are meant to prevent, but it would also increase the number of medical students willing to go into the specialty of OB/GYN – a critical need at a time when maternity healthcare deserts exist across the country. This would improve access to care for millions of American women,” the lawmakers wrote.
“Because the current opt-out induced abortion training requirement is a clear violation of existing federal law, HHS and CMS should issue a rule to require any graduate medical education program to provide induced abortion as an opt-in only option in order to receive their federal GME funding and in order to receive CMS reimbursements,” the lawmakers added.
U.S. Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) and U.S. Representative Greg Murphy, M.D. (R-N.C.) led the letter, which was also signed by U.S. Senators Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Ashley Moody (R-Fla.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Jim Banks (R-Ind.), and U.S. Representatives Michael Cloud (R-Texas), Julie Fedorchak (R-N.D.), John Joyce, M.D. (R-Pa.), Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), Ben Cline (R-Va.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Sheri Biggs (R-S.C.), Robert F. Onder, Jr. (R-Mo.), Mary E. Miller (R-Ill.), Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), and Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.).
Read the full letter here.
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