Michigan Debating The "First Do Harm Bill"

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This is not entirely surprising. The Michigan House Education Committee has heard testimony on House Bill 5040. The bill crafted by Representative Joe Haveman is designed to allow counseling students to refuse to offer counseling services based upon their sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction. Simply put, it will allow them to ignore APA standards regarding homosexuality.

Testimony was offered by the Michigan Association of Social Workers and Michigan Psychological Association in which they strongly opposed the bill and noted that it violates the national counseling practice standards, and that this could render Michigan counseling programs unable to be accredited.

This bill is being pushed by people who want to harm lesbians and gays and have no respect for other humans.

Equality Michigan’s Policy Director Emily Dievendorft issued this statement on the “First Do Harm Bill:

“Today, taxpayer money was wasted on an irrelevant, unnecessary and destructive piece of legislation. Legislators, advocates and community members were not called to committee today to find the best way to protect the United States Constitution, as suggested by Republican supporters. The United States Constitution is our nation’s most resilient document and language to protect it never needs to be written into legislation. Rep. Haveman’s legislation was drafted to create a gap in law large enough to entitle our state’s counseling, social work, and psychology students to the power to DO harm. We expect other health and wellness providers to abandon this power because of their responsibility for our most vulnerable.”

“To turn away a client in their time of need, based on personal bias, does potentially irreversible damage to the client’s self-worth, stability and trust in future counselors. Ultimately, it harms their ability to address their personal challenges and heal. This bill threatens clients seeking counseling with rejection based on their race, relationship status and faith, among countless other weak justifications. The strength of one’s convictions is not justification in and of itself for service refusal and is a despicable excuse for damaging another human being.”

“Equality Michigan asks the Michigan House of Representatives not to embarrass our state, again, by entertaining the kind of out-of-touch legislation that was brought to us by Senate Republicans through the ‘license to bully’ earlier this year. Will the Michigan House be to blame for the bill to ‘First Do Harm?’”