Conscience Protection Act of 2016
Floor Speech
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Mr. BERA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to another bill that is aimed to come between a woman and her doctor. I have heard a lot of people talk about laws in California and so forth and what we are doing.
This is my license to practice medicine in California as a doctor. Core to the oath I took as a doctor were three things: to do good, to do no harm, and the third plank in the ethics that guide how we practice is patient autonomy. That is what I want to talk about today, because what is buried in our Constitution is individual rights, individual liberties, and there is no right more sacred than what we do with our own bodies.
Now, my job as a doctor is to sit in that exam room, answer the questions, and empower my patients to make the decisions that best impact their lives. That is why I find the Conscience Protection Act so objectionable, because it takes away a patient's right to make the decisions about their own health care. Let me give you an example that actually happened in our State.
In northern California earlier this year, a woman was going to have a baby. She wanted to have that baby. She was scheduled to have a C- section, but she already had prior kids, and she wanted to get a tubal ligation after the C-section. Her doctor thought that was the most prudent thing to do. That is totally acceptable. That is standard medical care. The problem was her hospital said she couldn't do it because they conscientiously objected to it.
Now, to me that isn't a healthcare provider making a decision. That isn't taking best medical practice and making a decision. There wasn't anything objectionable about that. That is why we need to get the government out of our healthcare system. We need to get politicians out of the exam room. We need to make these decisions about that sacred bond between a patient and their physician, because she needs to make the decision.
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Mr. BERA. Mr. Speaker, this is about honoring that sacred oath between a patient and their physician.
Let's protect patients' rights, let's make our patients and women able to make the decisions that best impact their lives, and that is what this is about--individual liberties and individual rights.
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