Catholic Health Care and Reproductive Justice: Whose Conscience Has Priority When Conscience Claims Collide?

In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis explained that pastors are called to “form consciences,” not to “replace them” (37). Francis has also asserted the right of Catholic health care professionals to conscientious objection, including the right to refuse to perform abortions at the request of pregnant patients. But what happens when a patient’s conscience is in conflict with the medical provider’s conscience? How are these competing claims to be negotiated? Is not a conscientious refusal on the part of a health care provider a “replacement” of the patient’s own conscientious conclusion? This chapter examines the ways in which competing conscience claims have been negotiated, and some of the ongoing problems with the current situation. In particular, I am concerned that Catholic health care policies privilege institutional conscience claims and conscience claims of health care providers, causing harm to patients who are not able to seek standard medical care that they believe is in their best interest. When genuine conflict is present, the patient’s interests should be prioritized; in such cases, attention must also be given to the moral injury reportedly experienced by some health care providers.