McHenry Times

Republican state Rep. Dan Ugaste argues those standing in opposition to the ongoing push for amendments to the Health Care Right of Conscience Act have taken their position for good reason.

“This is about religious exemptions,” Ugaste said in a video posted to Facebook. “You know, Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or the First Amendment, says that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. It’s one of the basis for the founding of the nation.”

The legislation stems from a campaign to protect doctors from being forced to perform medical procedures that they stand morally opposed to, namely abortions. The current law states that “it is the public policy of the State of Illinois to respect and protect the right of conscience of all persons who refuse to obtain, receive or accept … health care services and medical care … and to prohibit all forms of discrimination, disqualification, coercion, disability or imposition of liability upon such persons or entities by reason of their refusing to act contrary to their conscience or conscientious convictions in providing, paying for, or refusing to obtain, receive, accept… health care services and medical care.”

Ugaste maintains individuals have every right to stand up for the principles they believe in.

“You may not believe they’re telling the truth about it; the governor may not; the employer may not, whoever it is that’s pushing this bill so hard may not believe that they hold those beliefs that dear, but you don’t know that,” he added. “You don’t know what’s in their hearts. They’re not telling you what’s in their heart.”

As it is, Ugaste said since the pandemic hit so many people being forced to do so many different things has definitely taken a heavy toll.

“You know, it’s amazing what we’ve seen since the pandemic started in this state alone, not to mention the nation,” he said. “We’ve had increases in suicides. We’ve had increases in domestic violence cases. We’ve had increases in opioid overdoses. We’ve had our children struggling to learn in schools. And we’ve had a mental health crisis appear to an extent probably previously unknown. But not once, not once did we as a legislature come in and do anything to address those issues.”