I can understand how pro-life doctors will want to refuse to administer an abortion. I can even understand how some will refuse to supply birth control. But I cannot understand how a GYN refuses on MORAL grounds to administer a PAP smear to determine whether a woman has cancer or a meaningful risk there of in the future. Apparently, the risk of death from cancer is important to preserve as a moral bulwark against the immorality of, well, sex before marriage. I guess it's more moral, more "pro-life", to watch a woman die of cancer than to risk the appearance that her concern for her health might be interpreted as an endorsement of her presumed sex life.

Read this illucid story from Canada about how doctors are refusing on grounds of "conscience" to administer PAP smears to unmarried women. I wonder: do they also refuse to provide treatment to men and women for sexually transmitted diseases? It should be noted that doctors are state agents in Canada under the Canada Health Act, and that all Canadians and landed immigrants ("green card" equivalent) have the statutory right to medically necessary treatments under their national health insurance laws. I think cancer screenings for completely preventable and treatable cancers are "medically necessary," and whether I think so or not, they are covered under the Canada Health Act.

HAT TIP to Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon.