Freedom for The Doctors--and Their Employers Too

I once had a small fellowship through The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in DC that, more than any other, influenced the good policies of the Reagan administration. I'd say that I agree with their positions, as a practical matter (i.e., in terms of what's achievable at the margin, versus what I'd like to see ideally) about 90% of the time.

Right now The Heritage Foundation is fighting an Obama administration attempt to eliminate a federal regulation forcing employers of doctors not to require doctors to perform abortions. I'm pro-life and I support a doctor who will not perform abortions. I know it's easier for a pro-life doctor if the government forces his employer not to require him to perform an abortion, but isn't the whole point of conscience doing what's right even when it's not easy? A doctor whose employer requires him to perform abortions should go work elsewhere. That's the American way.

I frankly think it would be great if all doctors who refuse to perform abortions withdrew their medical talent from all employers who force doctors to perform abortions. I think it would be great if pro-life doctors published a list online of all hospitals who force their employees to perform abortions, especially the third-trimester and partial-birth abortions that 60-80% of Americans oppose even being legal. I'd like to see millions of pro-life Americans in small towns and rural areas (and a few even in suburbia and big cities) go out of their way to patronize hospitals who do not force their employees to perform abortions.

Can you imagine the hue and cry from statist-liberals if a state forced its anti-death-penalty employees to perform executions? I'd like to see these statist-liberals, who want to regulate everything except abortion, publicly defending forcing a doctor to perform abortions against his conscience. I think hospitals and medical practices would perform substantially fewer abortions if pro-life medical customers took their medical dollars to places that do not force their employees to perform abortions.

Vote with your dollars in the market place--that's the American way.