California Bans State-Funded Travel to Ohio over Law Protecting Healthcare Professionals Religious Freedom
The attorney general for California is barring state employees from using taxpayer funds to travel to Ohio because of an Ohio law that AG Rob Bonta says is “anti-LGBTQ+.”
Bonta announced last week that starting Sept. 30, California will restrict travel for state employees on taxpayer dollars.
He said that provisions in Ohio House Bill 110 “will allow medical providers in the state to deny care to LGBTQ+ Americans, including Californians traveling in Ohio.
“Blocking access to life-saving care is wrong. Period,” Bonta said. “Whether it’s denying a prescription for medication that prevents the spread of HIV, refusing to provide gender-affirming care, or undermining a woman’s right to choose, HB 110 unnecessarily puts the health of Americans at risk.”
Ohio’s state budget for 2022 and 2023 is House Bill 110 and includes the Medical Ethics and Diversity Act.
The legislation, which Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law earlier this year, includes a provision declaring that “a medical practitioner, health care institution, or health care payer has the freedom to decline to perform, participate in, or pay for any health care service which violates the practitioner’s, institution’s, or payer’s conscience as informed by the moral, ethical, or religious beliefs or principles held by the practitioner, institution, or payer.”
The bill noted that the “exercise of the right of conscience is limited to conscience-based objections to a particular health care service.”
In a blog post, the Center for Christian Virtue said that the law “ensures doctors and medical professionals cannot be forced to perform medical procedures that violate their conscience or religious beliefs” and allows for the religious freedom of medical workers.
“This means, for instance, that doctors cannot be forced to perform abortions or prescribe dangerous puberty-blocking drugs to children for ‘gender transitioning’ if doing so goes against their conscience,” the blog post said.
Photo courtesy: Andreas Weiland/Unsplash
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.
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