Friday, January 15, 2010

Martha Coakley: Catholics 'Shouldn't Work in Emergency Rooms'

Martha Coakley thinks that Catholics probably shouldn't be working in hospital emergency rooms.

During an interview yesterday with Ken Pittman, Coakley expressed her reservations about Catholics filling those positions.

KEN PITTMAN: Health care-- Would you pass a health care bill that had a conscientious objector toward certain procedures, including abortion?

MARTHA COAKLEY: It would... I don't believe that would be included in the health care bill. I don't understand exactly what the... I would not pass a bill as Scott Brown's filed amendment to say that if people believe that they don't want to provide services that are required under the law and under Roe v. Wade that they can individually decide to not follow the law. The answer to that question is no.

PITTMAN: OK. So a service...

COAKLEY: And let's be clear, 'cause Scott Brown filed an amendment to the bill in Massachusetts that would say that hospital and emergency room personnel could deny emergency contraception to a woman who came in who'd been raped.

PITTMAN: Right. If you are a Catholic and you believe what the Pope teaches, you know, that any form of birth control is a sin, and you don't want to do that...

COAKLEY: I know, but we have a separation of church and state here, Ken. Let's be clear.

PITTMAN: Yeah but in the emergency room, you still have your religious freedom.

COAKLEY: Uh, well, um, eh, the, the law says that people are allowed to have that. And so then if you... you can have religious freedom. You probably shouldn't work in the emergency room.

Coakley doesn't get it.

A conscience clause being in place doesn't mean a woman would be denied the sort of treatment she's seeking. It protects health care workers with moral objections to certain procedures from having to violate their beliefs. Patients could be treated by someone without those objections. We're not talking about the denial of services to patients. We're talking about protecting the rights of health care workers.

Coakley believes that people working in emergency rooms should be required to perform all procedures, even if they find them morally objectionable, or get out of the profession.

That's an extreme position.

Catholic doctors and nurses must participate in abortions if they want to keep their jobs?

Coakley is really saying that Catholics need not apply.


Audio.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder what Coakley's opinion on allowing Muslim cab drivers to deny rides for people carrying alcoholic beverages is? If he's for it, he's a hypocrite. Then again, most liberals are! LOL

Unknown said...

From Wikipedia...

The US Constitution reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . ."

The concept of separation is commonly credited to the combination of... 1) the establishment clause, generally interpreted as preventing the government from establishing a national religion, providing tax money in support of religion, or otherwise favoring any single religion or religion generally; and 2) the free exercise clause, ensuring that private religious practices are not restricted by the government. The effect of prohibiting direct connections between religious and governmental institutions while protecting private religious freedom and autonomy has been termed the "separation of church and state."