Fundamental freedoms are threatened by a College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario policy that would force doctors to provide an “effective referral” for services such as abortion and assisted suicide even if they believe it to be medically and morally wrong, former Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth told about 30 protesters gathered in front of Queen's Park on Nov. 30.

OTTAWA – Ontario's bishops are putting their weight behind doctors who are going to court to defend their religious and conscience rights to refuse to refer patients for assisted suicide.

OTTAWA – Members of the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience are taking the College of Physicians’ and Surgeons of Ontario (CSPO) to court over its assisted-suicide policy that would force health-care practitioners to refer people for assisted suicide even if it goes against their conscience.

Already battle scarred in conflict with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario over the college’s insistence that doctors must actively help patients access abortion, morning-after pills, chemical contraception, hysterectomies and vasectomies, Dr. Agnes Tanguay is not backing away from a fight for her right to practise medicine according to her conscience.

After seven months of refusing to meet face-to-face with the affected doctors, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario will now face them in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

The first legal challenge to a policy that would force Ontario doctors to refer for abortions against their conscience has been announced by the Christian Medical and Dental Society.

TORONTO - Some doctor, somewhere in Ontario, is heading for court. The only question is how and when, according to Catholic Civil Rights League president Phil Horgan.

Requiring doctors to remain pillars of integrity while chipping at their moral underpinning is an odious contradiction. Yet that is what the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario proposes with a draconian new policy that tramples on conscience and religious rights.

TORONTO - Despite an overwhelmingly negative response from members of the public, physicians and organizations during a three-month online consultation, the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons voted 21-3 to force doctors to refer for abortions, contraception and other legal treatments or procedures even if they have moral or religious objections.

OTTAWA - Doctors’ conscience rights are threatened by a proposed policy of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) that may force them to refer patients for morally problematic procedures, warn some physicians’ organizations.

When patients are asked what they want in a doctor, a common response is compassion and integrity. Good doctors follow their convictions in trying to do what is right for their patient, and good doctors should not be separated from their consciences and humanity when caring for others.

Doctors may be men and women of action, but before a patient dies they should be open and available for lots of talk, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario is advising its members.

Catholic doctors who won’t perform abortions or provide abortion referrals should leave family medicine, says an official of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.

OTTAWA - The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario's draft human rights policy would trample religious freedom and freedom of conscience, say groups defending those rights.