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State and federal lawmakers have crafted a complex set of laws designed to deny women medically necessary information, referrals, and services.
Contrary to anti-choice claims, no federal law forces any specific provider to offer abortion services against its will. There is a delicate balance between the rights of both patients and of providers, and NARAL Pro-Choice America does not advocate forcing anyone to provide abortion services against his or her will. Refusal clauses and counseling bans upset this balance, endanger women's health, and undermine patients' rights to get the care and information they need. Although carefully crafted refusal clauses may be acceptable in some circumstances to protect individual medical providers, broad refusal clauses unnecessarily deny women medically necessary information.
Refusal clauses permit a broad range of individuals and/or institutions — including hospitals, hospital employees, health care providers, pharmacists, employers, and insurers — to refuse to provide, pay for, counsel, or even refer for medical treatment that they personally oppose. Counseling bans, also known as "gag rules," prohibit health-care providers including individuals, under certain circumstances, from counseling or referring women for abortion care, preventing doctors from treating their patients responsibly and severely limiting women's ability to make informed decisions.
Women and their health care providers – not politicians – should be free to make private medical decisions.
Learn more about these anti-choice policies by reading our fact sheets:
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