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Paper Presentation

Clinical Ethics

Session: Conscientious Objections

Ethical Concerns Over Expanded Legal Protections for Conscientious Objections After Dobbs and Alliance

Thursday, October 23, 2025
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM Pacific Time
Location: C120-122
Abstract: The legal and ethical landscape regarding the moral objections of medical professionals dramatically shifted in the wake of Dobbs and its progeny FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. In Alliance the Supreme Court examined the scope and purpose of 42 U.S.C. 300a-7(d), colloquially called the Church Amendments (Amendments), which provide federal statutory protection for those who conscientiously object to providing care “related to” abortion and sterilization. The Court found that the Amendments provided protection for conscientious objectors who abstain from participation in any portion of an abortion procedure in emergent circumstances, including life-saving care after the pregnancy has been terminated. Such protection far surpasses the professional and ethical bounds of conscientious objections previously described by numerous theorists and professional groups, including the American Medical Association (AMA). This presentation will explore whether the legal protections for conscientious objections to emergent post-pregnancy abortion care (EPPAC) under the Amendments are ethically and/or professionally defensible. This paper will examine multiple ethical arguments for conscientious objections to EPPAC. This examination will show that the Amendments’ legal protections for conscientious objections to EPPAC, as newly described by the Court, are ethically and professionally indefensible in most cases.

Keywords: Moral or Conscientious Objection, Dobbs, Church Amendments

Learning Objectives:

After participating in this conference, attendees should be able to:
  • Understand the basic legal, ethical and professional landscape of moral objections within medicine prior to Dobbs and Alliance.
  • Understand how Dobbs and Alliance upended the legal, ethical, and professional obligations of medical professionals who morally object to providing care "related to" procedures protected under the Church Amendments.
  • Critically examine what (now) legally permissible moral objections of medical professionals are ethically and/or professionally in/defensible.