Bill Filed to Strengthen Conscience Protections for Healthcare Workers

New legislation filed on Wednesday would strengthen conscience protections for healthcare workers.

In 2021 Arkansas passed Act 462 to protects healthcare workers’ rights of conscience.

Prior to Act 462, Arkansas’ conscience protections were narrowly focused on abortion, abortifacients, and end of life decisions, and they protected only a limited number of people. Act 462 helped broaden these protections for healthcare workers.

S.B. 444 by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) and Rep. Lee Johnson (R — Greenwood) would improve on Act 462’s conscience protections.

The bill would add whistleblower protections for healthcare workers to Arkansas’ conscience protection laws.

It also would protect healthcare workers from being penalized for engaging in free speech protected by the First Amendment, and it would clarify that medical researchers and other workers in the medical field have conscientious protections.

Arkansas has some of the best laws in the country when it comes to protecting healthcare workers’ rights of conscience. S.B. 444 would help make these good laws even better.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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