Speaker calls for strong relationship between faith, medicine

McALLEN — The government shouldn’t inhibit health-care providers’ ability to refuse to provide services because of their religious beliefs, a nurse and Catholic medical ethicist said following a mass honoring health-care professionals Tuesday.

Marie Hilliard, director of bioethics and public policy for the National Catholic Bioethics Center, spoke at a continuing-education session after the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville’s annual “White Mass,” honoring health professionals throughout the Rio Grande Valley.

The Mass was held at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in McAllen.

Hilliard, previously a lobbyist for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that state legislatures are increasingly forcing Catholic health-care providers to “violate” their beliefs and offer services like emergency contraception and birth-control prescriptions.

“It’s becoming harder and harder for health-care providers to say no,” Hilliard said. “What was once a choice has turned into a mandate.”

The impact of faith on health-care practice has become a hot-button issue in the last decade, as some pharmacists have refused to prescribe emergency contraceptives for religious reasons and a few doctors have refused to prescribe birth-control pills.

Catholic hospitals and health professionals should have the right to refuse to provide care that would interfere with life, such as abortion, emergency contraception or assisted suicide, Hilliard argued.

“We are a ministry that’s based on principles that seem to have been eroded in the health-care community,” she said.

Hilliard’s comments followed an impassioned homily at Mass by Bishop Raymundo Peña, who said the “fundamental tenet” of Catholic faith is the belief that life is a gift from God, and that health-care providers should preserve it.

“These are the decisions you must make as you fulfill your vocation,” Peña told the group of health professionals in attendance, some of them wearing scrubs or white coats. “I challenge you to face them with courage.”

Health professionals in attendance said they agreed with what Peña said.

“We are here to protect life — that’s my religion and my profession,” said Imelda Trapp, a registered nurse who works at a San Juan nursing home.