(Des Moines, Iowa) – Health care professionals, institutions and payors would not be required to provide medical services that they say violates their conscience under a bill advanced by a House subcommittee Wednesday. The Iowa Capital Dispatch says House Study Bill 139 would grant medical practitioners, health care organizations and health insurance companies the right not to participate in or pay for a health care service that goes against their conscience, saying these entities cannot be held civilly, criminally or administratively liable for exercising their right to not provide a service. There are exceptions made for emergency medical services.

Luke Vader, a second year medical student at Des Moines University, said he supported the legislation as a future physician and was “shocked” the measure was not already in law. But other advocates, like Connie Ryan with Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, said the measure would allow for discrimination in providing medical care to Iowa patients. Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, said he disagreed with Ryan’s and others’ arguments that medical providers should not be granted the right to refuse to provide services over issues of religious or moral beliefs. Rep. Lindsay James, D-Dubuque, said she was supportive of protecting physicians’ rights, but was also aware of the “political realities” of accessing health care services that she said have been deemed political, like abortion and gender-affirming health care. She did not sign off on the legislation, saying she had remaining concerns about the impact of the legislation.

A similar bill, Senate File 220, was passed by a Senate subcommittee Tuesday. Keenan Crow with One Iowa said many parts of the bill were already in place through federal rules and they objected to new parts of the bill allowing for health care payors to not pay for medical services due to issues of conscience. Jim Carney with the Iowa State Bar Association also asked lawmakers to add language that people choosing not to provide or pay for services are acting “reasonably and in good faith” when being provided legal immunity in these cases.

Rep. Bill Gustoff, R-Des Moines said he believes there may be some areas for clarification in the bill’s language, but that he believed the legislation offers a “much-needed protection” for Iowa’s medical industry. He and Holt moved the legislation forward for consideration by the House Judiciary Committee.