Doctors are becoming more assertive in refusing to treat patients for religious reasons, expanding the list of services they won’t provide beyond abortion to include artificial insemination, use of fetal tissues and even prescribing Viagra.<\/p>\n
The shift is prompting a new round of debate in courts and state legislatures over the balance between protecting the constitutional right to religious freedom and laws prohibiting discrimination.<\/p>\n
More than half the states in the past two years have debated expanding legal protections for health care providers, including pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for the “morning after” pill. Two states have passed them.<\/p>\n
“We’ve wound up with statutes that are incredibly broad,” says Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin law professor who studies bioethics. She says the use of fetal tissue in the development of chicken pox and measles vaccines also has become an issue.<\/p>\n