As many of us weed through open enrollment forms for choosing dentists, eye doctors, and health care providers, we are faced with the question, what if they don't want to treat me because I am gay? Unfortunately, it is something that we must think about all the time. Here in Florida, that thought process may be due to a new religious freedom bill.
While it's being disguised as moral liberation, Florida's recently-introduced "religious freedom" bill is much more unnerving than it sounds. In what seems like a deliberate attempt to strip women and gay people of their rights, the state is now considering a new law that, if passed, would allow doctors and caregivers to refuse treatment to patients if it meant compromising their beliefs.
The bill states that a "health care facility," "a hospice…operated by a religious institution," or *any* "healthcare provider" does not have to give medical aid if doing so isn't compatible with a practitioner's "religious or moral convictions or policies."
As you may have already guessed, these statutes' ramifications could be incredibly detrimental to women's sexual health: A pharmacist would have the right to decline requests for Plan B, physicians could refuse to prescribe birth control or insert IUDs, and scariest of all, a nurse could reject assistance in both medically necessary and by-choice abortions.
The rest of the bill is just as horrifying — not only for women, but for the LGBTQ community. If a doctor determines a sickness or condition to be gay-specific, he or she could legally turn a patient away if providing help forced them to defy their "convictions." Aside from refusing procedures that would "[place] the patient in imminent danger of loss of life or serious bodily injury," a surgeon would have the ability to put a halt to other important operations.
The bill hasn't passed and will likely see lots of vocal opposition on its way to the floor. Here's hoping it doesn't get any further than that. – marieclaire.com
Looks like I may have to interview my next doctor to see if s/he is a bigot or not before I turn my head and cough.
(H/T : Even Real from Marie Claire)
Below is a letter I received from Equality Florida. Will our fight ever end?
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
As a Floridian I can attest
As a Floridian I can attest that this discriminatory mindset is the North Florida Republican majority. They're actually proud of their "Southern Alabama" mindset of hate and discrimination towards people not like them and the Republican governor and Attorney General pander to their lack of goodwill and education. Fortunately South Florida counties have found it necessary to enact anti discrimination policies to counteract their hate and bigotry toward others. And amazingly they call themselves "Christian" in North Florida. There's nothing "Christian" about them.
Looks like we’re going to
Looks like we're going to have to take all these discriminatory boules to the Supreme Court is well 🙁