The right of health care providers to opt out of participating in abortion procedures apparently will remain safe under the Obama administration.
Frank PageSouth Carolina pastor Frank Page said he was “delighted” to learn of the president’s leanings April 7 when he spoke privately with Joshua DuBois, executive director of the president’s Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Page, pastor of Taylors First Baptist Church, was in Washington to attend the first full meeting of the president’s faith-based advisory council.
Page said that although the Obama administration will likely revise a recently adopted Bush-era “conscience provision” guideline in the Department of Health and Human Services, the provision will remain in some form.
Also, Page said, there are multiple federal laws that provide a conscience provision “that cannot, and will not, be overturned – and the president does not want to overturn those.”
“An overall conscience provision – some of which is federal law, some of which will be a newly worded Obama administration provision – will always protect the consciences of health care providers in regard to the performing of abortions,” Page said.
Page said the meeting of the president’s advisory council was filled with briefings by administration officials on how various parts of the faith-based office are distributing funds and attempting to implement the president’s anti-poverty agenda. The group also heard briefings on initiatives on responsible fatherhood, prevention of teen and unplanned pregnancies, and on the environment and climate change.
The council did not meet with President Obama, who was in Iraq visiting American troops.
Page said “one of the most important” meetings of the faith-based advisory council will be in July, when the group will deal more specifically with the issue of abortion reduction.