Louisiana Passes Conscience Clause (Provider Refusal) Bill.

There go patients' rights. From Louisiana Medical News:

BATON ROUGE- The LA Healthcare Workers Conscience Act, HB-517, passed late Wednesday afternoon.

Despite efforts to dilute the inevitability of the bill by pro-abortion pols, pro-life legislators fought off the attack against rights of conscience for ALL health care workers.

The bill had been amended days ago so that it only applied to public employees, but Sen. Amedee was able to strip that line from the bill today.

The LA House had originally passed the bill by a 2 to 1 margin of 65 to 33. The Senate followed last week and the final Senate-House conference overwhelmingly passed the conference bill 31-2.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has a strong pro-life record, has promised to sign the bill.