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SupportSanity

(1,571 posts)
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 10:54 AM Mar 2025

Gov. Brad Little signs bill to let Idaho doctors refuse care if it violates beliefs

I searched DU and didn’t find this news item

https://idahocapitalsun.com/briefs/gov-brad-little-signs-bill-to-let-idaho-doctors-refuse-care-if-it-violates-beliefs/

Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed into law a bill that prevents health care professionals and entities from being forced to participate in nonemergency procedures that would violate their sincerely held religious or moral beliefs.

Sen. Carl Bjerke, R-Coeur d’Alene, and Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, co-sponsored House Bill 59, dubbed the Medical Ethics Defense Act.

The bill takes effect immediately, through an emergency clause.

Little signed the bill into law Wednesday, according to the governor’s office legislation tracker.

The Idaho Legislature widely passed the bill on party-line votes, with opposition from all 15 Democratic lawmakers and support from all 86 Republican lawmakers who were present for votes on the bill. (There are 90 Idaho Republican lawmakers.)

“Health care providers shall have the right of conscience and, pursuant to this right, shall not be required to participate in or pay for a medical procedure, treatment, or service that violates such health care provider’s conscience,” the bill states.

So if I was doctor and a democrat in Idaho, could I legally refuse to treat MAGA?

13 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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bucolic_frolic

(54,047 posts)
1. Doctors in the moralizing business should go manage a flock
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 10:57 AM
Mar 2025

This is so, so, so F'd up. The government is allowing doctors to violate peoples' boundaries. My beliefs are not your beliefs.

littlemissmartypants

(31,640 posts)
2. So if I was doctor and a democrat in Idaho, could I legally refuse to treat MAGA?...
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 10:57 AM
Mar 2025

Is your malpractice insurance up-to-date?

 

stoned

(334 posts)
6. Great argument, great point!!!
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 11:20 AM
Mar 2025

If a doctor refuses to treat a trans person for his or her own ideological beliefs, should it be illegal?

If a doctor refuses to treat a Trump supporter for his or her own ideological beliefs, should it be illegal?

If a doctor refuses to treat an open and avowed member of the KKK for his or her own ideological beliefs, should it be illegal?

NickB79

(20,247 posts)
13. Shot yourself in the foot? Thoughts and prayers
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 01:36 PM
Mar 2025

Treating you goes against my deeply held belief that idiots shouldn't own firearms.

Timeflyer

(3,680 posts)
4. So pregnant patients should have their last will and testament in their hospital "go" bag.
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 11:06 AM
Mar 2025

Who gets to decide what is a "non-emergency"? and at what point in an emergency? Jeez, women are gonna die unnecessarily, but the doctor can sleep well knowing gawd approves.

kacekwl

(8,878 posts)
5. Then their "beliefs" have to be clearly and
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 11:08 AM
Mar 2025

in detail on their place of business their website and any advertisement. Make it so they can't hide it. They better also inform their legal team of upcoming lawsuits.

Ping Tung

(4,141 posts)
11. Hopefully, some of his own doctors have the belief that they shouldn't treat obviously fascist lunatics.
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 12:34 PM
Mar 2025
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