Physicians employed through religious hospital systems often sign contracts that limit what they can express politically, what they post on social media and whether they can take on part-time work performing abortions, according to NPR.
Here are five things to know:
1. Noel León, a lawyer at Washington, D.C.-based National Women's Law Center, was hired two years ago to provide legal protection to physicians who want offer abortions as a patient service.
"Institutions are using the institutional religious and moral beliefs to interfere with employees' religious and moral beliefs," Ms. León told NPR.
2. Ms. León indicated this legal argument potentially prevents physicians from providing care they feel called to perform, even as a side job outside the hospitals that employ them. Many abortion clinics also rely on part-time staff, meaning restrictive employment contracts can hinder their ability to find physicians.
3. Since the 1970s, federal rules have given clinicians "conscience protections" that protect physicians from losing their jobs if they do not want to perform or help with an abortion. Hospitals with religious affiliations are also protected, meaning Catholic health systems can opt out of providing abortions or sterilizations. Clinicians working for religious hospitals sign employment contracts indicating they will uphold the hospital's religious values in their own practice.
4. One physician, Kimberly Remski, MD, was offered a job with a Michigan-based physician group. She signed her contract and started preparing for her move, but was later told she no longer had the position. Throughout the interview process, Dr. Remski had been transparent about wanting to offer abortions to patients at an independent clinic one day a week. Dr. Remski later learned her potential employer was owned by Trinity Health, which requires its physicians to "provide services in a manner consistent with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services," according to NPR.
5. Ms. León has worked with 30 physicians and nurse practitioners from 20 different states who are faced with situations similar to Dr. Remski's.
"They're being told, 'We can't provide the care we went into medicine to provide,'" Ms. León told NPR. "We shouldn't be putting providers in the position of caring for their patients or keeping their jobs."
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