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HEALTH & REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
Law Center Fights for All Patients’ Rights to Complete and Accurate Health Care Information
Are you getting all the information you need from your doctor to make informed decisions about your health care?
Maybe not. Depending upon where you receive your medical care, your health care provider may not be able to give you all the information you need to make an informed health care decision. In some circumstances, your health care provider may refuse to perform certain medical services either because of faith-based religious restrictions imposed upon them or because of their own religious or moral beliefs. The rise of religious restrictions in health care is a serious problem, particularly in reproductive health care services and end of life care. Such restrictions have a profound effect on our access to health care – and often we, as consumers, don’t even realize it.
What do such restrictions mean for you?
It means that your elderly parent’s end of life wishes may not be honored at the local hospital; it means that your obstetrician may not be able to perform the tubal ligation you want after delivering your baby; it means that your physician may refuse to provide fertility services to you because of religious doctrine or a belief that your family is morally unacceptable.
What is the Northwest Women's Law Center doing about this problem?
We’re working hard to ensure that patients receive complete and accurate health care information. We believe that patients have the right to know, in advance, of any religiously based policies that would restrict their ability to receive medical information or services. We all deserve to get complete, accurate unbiased medical advice without interference from religious doctrine or an individual provider’s moral beliefs.
We want to hear from you. Contact us if you or someone you know has had experienced this type of restriction on access to health care.