
In ordering Dr. Horvath-Cosper to end her advocacy, the medical director of the hospital, Dr. Gregory J. Argyros, said he did “not want to put a Kmart blue-light special on the fact that we provide abortions at MedStar,” according to the complaint. Since then, hospital officials have ordered Dr. Horvath-Cosper to turn down several requests for interviews or articles or risk losing her job , she said in the complaint, which was filed with the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services. If the civil rights office finds that Dr. Horvath-Cosper’s rights were violated, it can order the hospital to take corrective action or risk losing its federal funding. The hospital on Monday afternoon did not directly respond to the allegations, saying in a brief, emailed statement, “MedStar Washington Hospital Center is committed to providing family planning services for our community, and we do so in a respectful, private and safe environment.” “We look forward to cooperating fully with the Office for Civil Rights,” said the statement, which was issued by Donna L. Arbogast, the hospital’s vice president for public affairs and marketing. Dr. Horvath-Cosper’s legal case rests on a little-known aspect of the Church Amendment, which was adopted in 1973 after Roe v. Wade established abortion rights nationwide earlier that year. The bill is best known for offering protections to medical staff members who object to participating in abortions on religious or moral grounds. But the legislative history and final wording of the amendment show it was intended to be two-sided, said Gretchen Borchelt, the vice president for reproductive rights and health at the National Women’s Law Center and a co-counsel in Dr. Horvath-Cosper’s complaint. The law states that no entity receiving federal money may discriminate against any doctor “because of his religious beliefs or moral convictions respecting sterilization procedures or abortions.” That means that doctors are protected from punishment for supporting abortion, just as they are protected if they oppose it and refuse to participate, according to the complaint. “If she can’t speak out about abortion the way other doctors at the hospital do about what they work on, she is being treated differently and that is discrimination,” Ms. Borchelt said.
Source: Doctor, Warned to Be Silent on Abortions, Files Civil Rights Complaint – The New York Times
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