LA 2009 Legislative Session

Of interest this session to our members are the following bills that threaten Louisiana's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens.

House Bill 517

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Our Position:

• AGAINST HB517

Our Partners:

• HRC
• ACLU of Louisiana

Status:

• PARTIAL VICTORY — This bill started out as an awful bill that would have allowed medical care providers and pharmacists to refuse treatment to anyone for anything as long as they claimed a moral objection. This would have left many HIV patients without medical care in some areas of the state. It was amended several times and what was passed allows a health care provider (including pharmacists ) to refuse to perform an abortion, physician assisted suicide, euthanasia, human cloning and stem cell research, or to dispense "abortifacient drugs". Basically the only change in Louisiana law is that a pharmacist can refuse to fill a prescription for the morning after pill. While this is still a bad result, it is not as bad as the original bill.

Summary:

• HB517 would threaten access to health care for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
• HB517 would allow healthcare providers to refuse to participate in certain health care services that violate their religious beliefs or moral convictions.

Talking Points:

• This legislation would set a dangerous precedent by establishing the principle that health care providers may cite religious belief as a basis for refusing to treat people in need of health care.
• Allowing doctors to refuse treatment to patients in need and pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for drugs of which they disapprove (like those for HIV treatments) would wreck havoc on our state's health care system. We would effectively destroy a medical care system based in medical science, and install one based on religious opinions. This could very well lead to medical malpractice cases that could bankrupt the state.