On Tuesday, the House Public Health Committee passed a conscience protection measure.
S.B. 444 by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) and Rep. Lee Johnson (R — Greenwood) strengthens the healthcare workers’ rights of conscience law Arkansas passed in 2021. Among other things, this good bill adds whistleblower protections for healthcare workers, and it helps protect all medical professionals from having their rights of conscience violated.
In 2021, Arkansas passed Act 462 protecting healthcare workers’ rights of conscience.
Before that law passed, Arkansas’ conscience protections were narrowly focused on abortion and end of life decisions, and they protected very few people. Act 462 helped broaden those protections and apply them to all healthcare workers.
S.B. 444 will help enhance the conscience protections Arkansas enacted four years ago. It now goes to the entire Arkansas House of Representatives for a vote.
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