See related documentsMotion for a resolution
| Doc. 11757
| 14 October 2008
Women’s access to lawful medical care: the problem of unregulated use of conscientious objection
Signatories: Ms Carina HÄGG,
Sweden ; Mr John AUSTIN,
United Kingdom ; Ms Ana BLATNIK,
Austria ; Ms Olena BONDARENKO,
Ukraine, EPP/CD ; Lord Tim BOSWELL,
United Kingdom, EDG ; Ms Ingrida CIRCENE,
Latvia, EPP/CD ; Mr James CLAPPISON,
United Kingdom ; Ms Anna ČURDOVÁ,
Czech Republic ; Mr Arcadio DÍAZ TEJERA,
Spain ; Ms Sónia FERTUZINHOS,
Portugal ; Mr Giuseppe GALATI,
Italy, EPP/CD ; Baroness Anita GALE,
United Kingdom ; Ms Angelika GRAF,
Germany, SOC ; Ms Francine JOHN-CALAME,
Switzerland, SOC ; Ms Birgen KELEŞ,
Turkey, SOC ; Mr Oleg LEBEDEV,
Russian Federation, EDG ; Mr Kent OLSSON,
Sweden ; Ms Doris STUMP,
Switzerland, SOC ; Ms Tatiana VOLOZHINSKAYA,
Russian Federation, EDG ; Ms Betty WILLIAMS,
United Kingdom ; Mr Vladimir ZHIDKIKH,
Russian Federation, EDG
This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.The practice of conscientious objection arises in the field
of health care, when individual health care providers or institutions
refuse to provide certain health services based on religious, moral
or philosophical objections. While recognising the right of an individual
to conscientiously object to performing a certain medical procedure, the
Parliamentary Assembly is deeply concerned about the increasing
and largely unregulated occurrence of this practice, especially
in the field of reproductive health care.
The Parliamentary Assembly emphasizes the need to balance
the right of conscientious objection with the responsibility of
the profession and the right of each patient to receive lawful treatment
and expresses its concern about the severe consequences that the
occurrence of this practice has on women’s access to lawful health
care services.
In the majority of the Member States of the Council of Europe
the practice of conscientious objection is largely unregulated.
The absence of a comprehensive and effective legal and policy framework
governing the practice of conscientious objection by health-care
providers has severely affected women’s health and lives in a number of
Council of Europe Member States, and is disproportionately affecting
poor women and women from rural areas.
In view of the Council of Europe's member states obligation
to ensure access to health care services provided by law, the Assembly
invites member states to:
1. develop
comprehensive guidelines that define and regulate conscientious
objection, with regard to health and medical services;
2. provide oversight and monitoring of the practice of conscientious
objection so as to ensure women are able to access the medical services
they need and are legally entitled to receive and to guarantee the effective
implementation and enforcement of these regulations within Member
States respective health services;
3. urge those Member States who have not yet done so to establish
an oversight framework to ensure that women are referred to equivalent
practitioners in a timely manner who do not share such objections
and who are within reasonable distance in case the chosen health
care provider refuses to perform certain reproductive health services
based on conscientious objection;
4. rule out the right of institutional conscientious objection,
preventing public hospitals or clinics as a whole to invoke conscientious
objection.