NACN-USA Provides Comments on the American Nurses Association DRAFT Policy Statement on Discrimination ANA Draft PS on Discrimination NACN-USA Comments to ANA PS on Discrimination Thank you to Dr. Carolyn Laabs, PhD, MA, FNP-BC, RN, Chair, Ethics and Spirituality Committee and committee members Dr. Marie Hilliard, MS, MA, JCL, PhD, RN and Brother Ignatius Perkins, OP, PhD, FAAN for your contributions. Deadline for submission of comments to ANA is Tuesday, March 13, 2018.

The National Association of Catholic Nurses, U.S.A. Joined with 25,000 Physicians Fighting Proposed Global Abortion Policy to Strip Conscience Rights Protections The World Medical Association (WMA) representing 10 million physicians worldwide is poised to approve a policy that would demand doctors refer for abortion, even against their conscience. It is important to understand the differences between Referral and Transfer of Care. Read the Joint Letter to AMA in Opposition to WMA Proposed Changes Read the response from AMA and their position The WMA was founded in 1947 in response to [...]

HHS Actions to Protect Conscience Rights of Americans Following comments submitted by NACN-USA and many other organizations in November and December (see below), in January 2018 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced: Two major actions to protect life and conscience rights of Americans: New guidance to state Medicaid directors restoring state flexibility to decide program standards. The letter issued rescinds 2016 guidance that specifically restricted states' ability to take certain actions against family-planning provider that offer abortion services. HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a new [...]

HHS Removing Barriers to Participate in HHS Programs Carolyn Laabs, PhD, MA, FNP-BC, RNChair, Ethics & Spirituality Committee NACN-USA in collaboration with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop and other organizations provided comments on Removing Barriers for Religious and Faith-Based Organizations to Participate in HHS Programs and Receive Public Funding. The HHS sought comments from faith-based organizations and other interested parties to inform HHS on how it may best identify and remove regulatory or other barriers in order for these institutions to participate in HHS-funded or regulated programs, [...]