Topeka — Opponents said Tuesday that a bill to protect health care providers who refuse to perform some services is nothing more than an attempt by the Catholic Church to put its theology into state law.
"Clearly this proposed legislation, if made into law, would go down in history as theocratic control of this Legislature," John Swomley, president of the Americans for Religious Liberty, told the House Federal and State Affairs Committee.
The so-called "right of conscience" bill contains language similar to that supported by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The bill would protect the rights of health care providers and pharmacists who oppose administering services, such as abortion and gene therapy, that violate their religious or moral convictions.
Swomley said the bill would limit the health care choices of Kansans creating services for Catholics and those for everyone else.
Some committee members said Swomley's remarks were anti-Catholic, and Chairman Doug Mays apologized to Catholics on the committee and in the hearing room.
"I'm Methodist and I like this bill," said Mays, R-Topeka. "My vice chair is Methodist, and she likes it."
Swomley said he is not anti-Catholic and that he even was a correspondent once for a Catholic publication.
Mike Farmer, lobbyist for the Kansas Catholic Conference, said that if patients have the right to seek certain services, their health care providers should have the right to object without losing their jobs.
The bill lists abortion, prescriptions for the abortion pill RU-486, artificial insemination, gene therapy, cloning and experiments with fetal tissue.
"We believe that a right to conscientiously object must be a comprehensive civil right for any health care provider to refuse to participate in any health care service based on religious or moral convictions," Farmer said.
Pharmacists spoke in favor of the bill, saying it would give them protection from retaliation if they object to dispensing RU-486.
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