24 Hours Left to Act on Proposed Changes to HHS Abortion Regulations
The Bush Administration is proposing changes to the way Health and Human Services deals with definitions, abortion and access.
Specifically, the new rules would require anyone receiving federal funding for health care to allow employees to refuse services to which they object.
The obvious target here is abortion. Or is it?
Senator Clinton and Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, point out in a NYT op-ed last week that the ‘obvious’ target masks the real concern.
Rules allowing medical professionals to opt out of abortions have been in place for 30 years.
The new rule would go further, ensuring that all employees and volunteers for health care entities can refuse to aid in providing any treatment they object to, which could include not only abortion and sterilization but also contraception.
This document is the update from the July version, which defined birth control IUDs as abortificants, but the wording is no so vague as to be the same thing.
Health care professionals are allowed to decide what is meant by ‘abortion’ - and would be allowed to refuse care on the basis of their own definitions.
The rules would also allow federal funding for so-called ‘pregnancy crisis centers’, which are established for the specific purpose of keeping women from having abortions.
(You know how they functioned in Minnesota when I was working up there? At least one ‘clinic’ was showing women fake ultrasounds and telling them they were too pregnant to an abortion.)
Public comment on the new rules are open until 25 September at midnight. Please click this link and add your name to the petition.
Links:
Blocking Care for Women [NYT Opinion]
HHS Attack on Women’s Health Care [Planned Parenthood Action Center]
