A federal district court in California has ruled that doctors in the state who object to assisted suicide cannot be forced to take part in the procedure.
U.S. District Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha for the Central District of California, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, ruled on Sept. 2 that a state law that took effect in January likely violates the First Amendment rights of doctors by requiring them to take part in physician-assisted suicide. He granted a preliminary injunction barring the state from compelling health care providers to document a patient’s request for life-ending medication.
The decision comes in a federal lawsuit a group of Christian doctors filed against the state of California in February seeking to halt enforcement of the law, California Senate Bill 380, which is a piece of legislation that amends the End of Life Option Act, the 2015 law that legalized assisted suicide in California….