Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson
Asa Hutchinson Governor of Arkansas signs ban on transgender sports Internal enemy: Experts warn that the US does not learn from the mistakes of the past pandemic The Hill’s Morning Report – Biden: Back to the future in immigration, Afghanistan, Iran MORE (R) signed a bill on Friday that allows doctors to refuse treatment to patients if their belief systems are not aligned with the service being provided.
SB289, The Medical Ethics and Diversity Law, grants doctors the right to refuse treatment based on religious or moral objections.
The measure, which will take effect this summer, stipulates that health professionals and institutions may choose not to provide certain treatments to patients only in non-emergency situations.
Hutchinson rejected a similar measure in 2017. A statement released by Hutchinson’s office stated that he signed this new measure because it limited the right of healthcare providers to deny certain health services, not people.
“The bill was amended to ensure that the exercise of the right of conscience is limited to ‘conscientious objections to a specific health service’,” said Hutchinson in the statement.
“I support this right of conscience, as long as emergency care is exempt and the conscientious objection cannot be used to deny general health services to any class of people,” he said. “Most importantly, federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, sex, gender and nationality continue to apply to the provision of health services.”
LGBT advocacy groups, including the Human Rights Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union, have criticized the measure, arguing that it allows unfair discrimination against the community.
Hutchinson’s signing of the bill comes a day after he passed the “Women’s Sports Justice Act,” which prohibits transgender women from participating in women’s sports in the state.