So in January, right before Obama took office, the Bush administration added a clause to Health and Human Services regulations that allows health care workers (doctors, pharmacists, etc.) to refuse to provide certain services if they have moral problems with them. For instance, if a doctor feels morally uncomfortable performing artificial insemination for a lesbian couple, or if a pharmacist feels morally uncomfortable filling a prescription for birth control pills, they could refuse to do so. Now, the Obama administration is probably going to roll back this change, so that health care workers won't be able to refuse service for moral reasons. And conservative Christian doctors are unhappy about, and say that their beliefs are being discriminated against.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/...use/index.html

My own feelings on this issue are pretty divided. On the one hand, these health care workers are private citizens--it's not like they're working for the government--and there's a strong argument that they ought to be able to refuse service to anyone for any reason. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of the government forcing private citizens to provide services that they don't want to provide. On the other hand, I'm equally uncomfortable with rape victims, stupid teenagers, etc. becoming pregnant against their will because their local pharmacist happens to be a fundamentalist moron who thinks that the morning after pill is sinful.

Thoughts on this?