Sweeping Legislation Allowing LGBTQ Patients to Be Refused Healthcare Services Over ‘Conscience’ on Governor’s Desk
Arkansas Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson‘s desk is legislation that, if signed into law, would allow a vast array of healthcare workers including doctors and pharmacists, hospitals, and even students to deny service to LGBTQ people or anyone else for any reason, including religious or moral, if doing so would violate their conscience.SB 289, the “Medical Ethics and Diversity Act,” is sponsored by Republican state Senator Kim Hammer, a Missionary Baptist preacher and hospice pastor who earlier this year declared war on Democrats after then-President Donald Trump had been impeached.Should it become law, a physician could refuse to treat a transgender person, a mental health professional could end treatment with a young teenager who just