conscience clause
Belief-based opt-out
A conscience clause is a provision in a law or contract that allows individuals or institutions to refuse participation in activities that conflict with their moral or religious beliefs.
Most commonly applied in healthcare, conscience clauses permit doctors, pharmacists, or hospitals to decline performing abortions, prescribing contraception, or providing other services they find objectionable: The conscience clause lets pharmacists refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception.
- right to refuseAuthority to decline
- civil libertiesRights limiting government power
- religious freedomRight to practice faith
- objectionExpression of disapproval
- opt outDecline to participate
patient rights · healthcare workers · bioethics · do no harm · church-state separation · religious liberty · professional ethics · good faith · individual rights · religious exemptions · birth control · religious accommodations · religious tolerance · workplace policy · freedom of thought · legal immunity · religious equality · exemption
- church-statechurch-state, separation, church-state separation, religious accommodation, state religion
- faith healthcarefaith healing, hospital chaplain, chaplaincy, spiritual care, healing ministry
- Reproduction Policynatalism, pronatalism, family planning, population control, birth rate
- theopoliticstheocracy, Christian right, religious right, separation of church and state, state religion
conscience, clause, consciences, clauses, conscious, consciously, consciousness, unconscious, unconsciously