U.S. Senator Ben Sasse issued the following statement today as a federal judge in San Francisco heard oral arguments in California’s lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s rule that protects medical workers with religious objections from being forced to provide or refer abortions or assisted suicides.
“California doesn’t seem to understand the First Amendment,” said Senator Sasse. “The First Amendment – especially our freedom to decide what we say and how we worship – is all about protecting the conscience rights of individuals. In this country, government can’t tell Nebraskans and Californians to check their faith at the door when they come to work. The Trump Administration is absolutely right to protect the conscience rights of healthcare workers who don’t want to perform abortions, and the State of California is dead wrong to oppose the First Amendment.”
Background:
In May, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final rule protecting the conscience rights of health care entities and individuals.
As Roger Severino, the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at HHS, said at the time:
“This rule ensures that healthcare entities and professionals won’t be bullied out of the health care field because they decline to participate in actions that violate their conscience, including the taking of human life. Protecting conscience and religious freedom not only fosters greater diversity in healthcare, it’s the law.”
Today, a federal judge in San Francisco heard oral arguments in California’s lawsuit against those conscience protections.
The above comes from an Oct. 30 release issued by Christian Newswire.
Senator Sasse acts more like a Catholic than most “Catholic” politicians. Let us continue to pray for our separated brothers and sisters. We are allies with our evangelical friends on so many fronts. As a historian, and former university president and government official, he has insight into many matters. With his wife, Melissa, they home-school their children. God bless them.
Exactly what did California do and who did it??
The State of California, through its elected attorney general, is trying to force people with moral objections to it to commit or refer people for abortions. Are you being deliberately obtuse? This has been in the news frequently and for a long time.
I am not being obtuse. A straightforward sentence – such as anonymous’s – in the article would have provided clarifying context.
It’s in the first paragraph, plain as the nose on your face: U.S. Senator Ben Sasse issued the following statement today as a federal judge in San Francisco heard oral arguments in California’s lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s rule that protects medical workers with religious objections from being forced to provide or refer abortions or assisted suicides.
Let me repeat the salient portion: “…California’s lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s rule that protects medical workers with religious objections from being forced to provide or refer abortions or assisted suicides.”