Arkansas Sends "Most Extreme and Deadly" Bill Attacking LGBTQ+ Healthcare to Governor's Desk

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Arkansas is primed to enact what critics say is the nation’s worst anti-LGBTQ+ healthcare refusal law after a bill passed both houses of its legislature this month.

The innocuously named “Medical Ethics and Diversity Act,” also known as Senate Bill 289, states that doctors and other medical providers are “not required to participate in a healthcare service” if doing so would violate their religious or moral beliefs. The legislation was originally voted down in the Public Health, Welfare And Labor Committee of the Arkansas House over fears it was too broad before being passed on the second attempt.

Supporters of the legislation say that SB 289 is necessary to make sure that Christian doctors aren’t forced to perform medical procedures like abortions or gender-affirming surgeries. State Rep. Brandt Smith (R-Jonesboro), a co-sponsor of the bill, said during committee debate that it “provides a solution and a remedy to protect the rights of medical workers,” as reported by the NPR affiliate KUAR.

Hammer, meanwhile, noted that the proposal is similar to laws already in place in states like Mississippi and Illinois that allow doctors to refuse to perform certain procedures.

https://www.them.us/story/arkansas-deadly-bill-attacking-lgbtq-healthcare

[Docreed2003]

1. This is infuriating on so many levels

Obviously the outright LGBT bigotry is heinous. I would add that apparently these idiots think that providers graduate medical school with knowledge enough to perform complex surgical procedures like gender affirming surgeries. The providers who perform these procedures are intensively trained and specialized. They know how to perform these procedures because they've chosen to learn how to do so. The same is true for providing abortion services. No one is forcing these providers against their will to perform these procedures. This bill is nothing more than a shout out to their bigoted constituents.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Serious question: are all doctors currently required to perform these procedures?

These surgeries and procedures are performed by persons who have decided to train to do them. It's not like they are being coerced.

[Skittles]

3. they need to put notices in their offices / websites

regarding their, er, "religious convictions", so the rest of us can avoid them too

[crickets]

4. Agreed. nt

[sarcasmo]

5. The GOP is a hate group.

[vercetti2021]

6. I'd never move there

If Texas ever passed a bill like that. I'll be moving. I guess as a transgender girl they would say sorry you can die. Sick fucking people

[Solly Mack]

7. Decent people who are doctors should refuse to treat the haters - but they won't - because they're

decent people.

Decent people who are doctors or nurses wouldn't refuse care. They most certainly wouldn't refuse care in the name of hate or so-called morals.

Because the moral thing to do is to provide medical care to those in need.

If your religion encourages you to act out of hate, it is time to find a new religion or give it up altogether.

Decent people might find a Qanon patient to be morally repugnant but they would still give them medical care.

Decent people might find republicans to be bereft of all morals and decency but they would still give them medical care.

But the religious right-wing? If they didn't have hate, they wouldn't have anything.

[smirkymonkey]

8. K&R