The Louisiana House on Tuesday voted 8213 to approve legislation (HB 517) that would allow some health professionals to refuse to provide certain medical services that they object to on religious or moral grounds, the New Orleans TimesPicayune reports.

The Housepassed bill is an amended version of a measure, introduced by Rep. Bernard LeBas (D), that a House committee rejected earlier this month. The revised bill narrowed the list of procedures that can be denied, and it applies to health providers only in public facilities, not religious health facilities statewide as in the original bill. Under the bill, public health care employees would be allowed to decline to provide abortions or abortifacient drugs. They also would be allowed to refuse participation in embryonic stem cell research or cloning, euthanasia and physicianassisted suicide. Public employees would be immune from civil lawsuits and have job security under the measure.

According to the TimesPicayune, Gov. Bobby Jindals (R) administration backed the original bill in committee, although state Health Secretary Alan Levine indicated that the bills original provisions were too broad. Under the original measure, health care providers would have been allowed to refuse services such as artificial insemination, sterilization, artificial reproductive technologies and “dispensation of drugs affecting the reproductive process.” The original measure also would have covered both public and private health care providers (Barrow, New Orleans TimesPicayune, 5/20).

Prior to passage, the House approved an amendment to narrow the scope of the bill offered by Rep. John Bel Edwards (D), who said that the original bills provisions were not specific enough and could pose problems for private businesses. He also said that the original bill would have posed barriers to patients seeking access to basic treatments and medications (AP/New Orleans TimesPicayune, 5/19). The measure now advances to the state Senate for debate (New Orleans TimesPicayune, 5/20).

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