Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Friday signed into law a bill that protects health care providers from discrimination if they refuse to provide medical services for religious or moral reasons. The bill, known as the Medical Ethics and Diversity Act, states that doctors and other health care workers have the right to not participate in a health care service if it violates his or her conscience. It seeks to protect the right of conscience and prevents others from discriminating against a medical practitioner who exercises his or her conscience rights. The law, however, carves out an exception that prevents health care workers of faith from denying emergency medical care. “I weighed this bill very carefully, and it should be noted that I opposed the bill in the 2017 legislative session. The bill was changed to ensure that the exercise of the right of conscience is limited to ‘conscience-based objections to a particular …