Illinois Says Speech Clause Doesn’t Bar Conscience Law Protocols

Two Illinois Conscience Act provisions that require health-care providers to discuss or refer patients for care to which they object on religious grounds don’t violate the providers’ constitutional rights, the state says.

The requirement that providers give patients medically appropriate information in line with their needs is “a fundamental tenet of the medical profession” and doesn’t violate the First Amendment’s free-speech or free-exercise clauses, Illinois officials told the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in a brief filed Monday. The state’s Secretary of the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and other defendants asked the court to reverse ...