To Whom It May Concern:

The Virginia Latina Advocacy Network (“VA-LAN”) of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health urges the Board of Medicine to adopt the draft regulations for the licensure of genetic counselors in the Commonwealth.  The VA-LAN centralizes its work in Northern Virginia, promoting access to reproductive health services, immigrant and economic justice and advocating for healthy lives for Latinas, their families and their communities.

In 2014, a religious exemption was written into otherwise harmless legislation to license genetic counselors, allowing genetic counselors to refuse service to patients based on the counselors’ “deeply held moral or religious beliefs” and to shield those same counselors from damages.  As a result of this legislation, a state-licensed genetic counselor will be able, based on the genetic information provided to the counselor, to deny counseling to any patient simply because the counselor knows or believes that: the patient is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (“LGBTQ”); subscribes to a certain religious faith; is unmarried and pregnant; or the person may want to take an action with which the counselor doesn’t personally agree.  This legislation is so extreme that it will shield a genetic counselor from damages even if the counselor took purposeful action based on his or her personal beliefs that results in physical harm or death to the patient.

Religious exemptions have hurt many communities, including Latinas/os and LGBTQ Latinas/os, by denying needed reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare when they needed it.  These exemptions have been used to deny services such as abortion care, contraception, including emergency contraception, and post exposure prophylaxis (PEP).  Because of these exemptions in healthcare, individuals may be delayed in accessing life-saving treatment or may not receive comprehensive, medically accurate information regarding their treatment options.  Religious exemptions worsen health inequities that our communities face and the discrimination they experience in healthcare settings. 

Regulations for the licensure of genetic counselors should ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of all genetic counseling clients in the Commonwealth.  No genetic counseling client should experience harmful, biased, and medically incomplete care based on a genetic counselor’s deeply held moral or religious beliefs.  All genetic counseling clients, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, religion, or viewpoint on abortion care, should expect to receive, and should receive, the highest level of care from their genetic counselor.  

Accordingly, the Board of Medicine should adopt the regulations as drafted by the Advisory Board on Genetic Counseling, and as unanimously approved by the full Board of Medicine on February 18, 2016.

Sincerely,

Margie Del Castillo

Virginia Latina Advocacy Network, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health