New Mexico senator introduces bill forcing religious hospitals to perform abortions

[Heddi]

http://www.christiantimes.com/article/new-mexico-senator-introduces-bill-forcing-religious-hospitals-to-perform-abortions/71454.htm

Lawmakers in New Mexico have introduced a bill which would essentially force Christian healthcare workers to refer for abortions and religiously-affiliated hospitals to perform the procedure.

State senators Gerald Ortiz y Pino and Mimi Stewart introduced Senate Bill 282, which seeks to repeal religious exemptions for participating in abortions.

The measure states: "A hospital shall not refuse to provide a reproductive health service if withholding the reproductive health service would result in or prolong a serious risk to the patient's life or health; and, where a failure to provide the reproductive health service would violate the medical standard of care owed the patient."

According to Life Site News, New Mexico law provides legal exemptions for individuals and hospitals that have moral religious objections to abortion. Although SB 282 does not directly refer to the exemptions, those religious freedoms will be eliminated under the measure.

Ortiz y Pino had voted in 2015, 2016 and 2017 to keep abortion legal up to the day of birth, saying, he cannot support any abortion restrictions as a "faithful Catholic."


..
Martinez also accused Ortiz y Pino of misleading the legislature as his bill does not mention the statute it seeks to eliminate. She argued that even pro-life legislators could vote in favor of the bill without knowing that they are repealing "the basic constitutional right to religious liberty."

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. Good.

There are too many places -- Santa Fe, NM is one -- where the only hospital in town is a Catholic hospital.

[LonePirate]

2. This is an interesting change of pace involving abortion, religion and a state bill.

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. Will the human race ever grow up?

There is no god and a woman has a right to her body.

period