Discussion focuses on questions of consciencefor health-care providers

By Jan Kaus, Journal Staff Writer | Sunday, February 05, 2006

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RAPID CITY — Rep. Don Van Etten’s right-of-conscience bill, HB 1184, drew strong reactions at Saturday’s legislative crackerbarrel on the campus of South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.

The bill would allow health-care providers to refrain from delivering services that violate their consciences.

Although some — in the audience and on the legislative panel — expressed concern that medical service could be denied to them if a doctor deemed certain services are in conflict with his or her moral choices, others applauded when Van Etten, R-Rapid City, explained that a doctor’s right of conscience should not be taken away.

No doctor should be forced to perform an abortion, sterilization, physician-assisted suicide or withdrawal of nutrition or provide contraception, Van Etten told the audience.

Rep. Stan Adelstein, R-Rapid City, said he believes it is wrong for a doctor to be able to refuse services that a patient requests.

“I recognize the problem of how you exercise conscience, but if you don’t want to do those things, you shouldn’t be in the practice, or you need to be willing to go to jail to stand up for what you believe,” Adelstein said.

Van Etten maintained that a doctor exercising choice would not endanger the life of a patient.

“The services addressed in the bill are life-destroying procedures, not life-saving procedures,” he said. “They are not emergency issues as much as they are elective. All those things could be handled by someone else. I just don’t think anyone should be forced to have no right of conscience.”

HB1184 has passed out of committee and awaits action on the House floor.

Other topics discussed Saturday include sex education and a proposed abortion ban.

-- SB196 and HB1217 deal with sex education in the schools. Adelstein, who proposed SB196, said, “There will be major amendments to my bill that will reflect many of the things from HB1217.” He said details will include clearly defining abstinence, giving control to local school boards and allowing parents to see curriculum materials and decide if they want their children to participate. Rep. Mike Buckingham, R-Rapid City, said, “No school teacher or administrator should provide contraceptives to kids.” He said the school’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, program teaches kids about preventing drug use. “But we don’t give them clean needles in case they decide to (use drugs),” which prompted applause from the audience.

-- Audience member Bill Nachatilo questioned legislators about their support for HB1215, which would ban abortion. Rep. Gordon Howie, R-Rapid City, said he would support a ban on abortion, listing numbers between 800 verifiable abortions per year in South Dakota and what he believes is the more likely 1,000 or more that actually take place. “That’s the equivalent of us eliminating the entire population of New Underwood and Keystone or Hill City and Hermosa. If people would look at it that way, I bet we would stand up and do something,” Howie said.