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As a Christian healthcare professional, have your colleagues ever looked down at you for refusing to prescribe the morning after pill? Or have you ever been punished for maintaining your religious beliefs instead of believing in evolution? Or have you ever been harassed by an attending trying to force you to perform an abortion?

If you’ve experienced any type of hostility or discrimination like this, then you know how important it is for healthcare workers to protect their right of conscience. Right of conscience is defined as the right to practice healthcare in accordance with your deeply held religious, moral or ethical convictions.

Healthcare professionals are being pressured and discriminated against by employers and colleagues because of their deeply held religious or moral beliefs. Almost one in four faith-based professionals state that they have been discriminated against by employers, educators or others in the healthcare system. Nearly two out of five have been pressured to violate their beliefs by referring, writing a prescription or doing a procedure.

Abolishing the right of conscience is dangerous. It’s not just dangerous for the physicians and healthcare workers, but it’s also dangerous for our country, our healthcare system and every patient. In a recent survey of more than 2,800 faith-based doctors, pharmacists, physician assistants and nurses, 95 percent of them said they would quit medicine before violating their conscience.

CMDA is committed to providing the most up-to-date information on the legislative, ethical and medical aspects of the fight to protect the rights of medical professionals. We’ve compiled a great number of resources that you can use to educate yourself and others about this important issue. So get involved today: talk about the issue with your friends, write your senators and send a letter to your local newspaper to let others know how important it is to maintain the right of conscience.