Proposed HHS Rule Is Attempt By Conservatives To Do What They Cannot Through Open Process, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 05 Aug 2008 - 8:00 PST

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Having "failed" during the Bush administration "to keep American women from having access to basic birth control," religious conservatives are "trying to use the guise of an existing 'conscience' requirement to achieve" what they could not "accomplish through an open political process," syndicated columnist Marie Cocco writes in an Akron Beacon Journal opinion piece. According to Cocco, religious conservatives have failed to: gain approval of a constitutional amendment that human life begins at conception; block approval of medication abortion drugs; block approval of wider access to emergency contraception; and remove a requirement that federal employees receive birth control coverage as part of their health insurance plans.

The "parting gift to the religious right" has come in the form of a draft HHS rule that would "redefine abortion to include some of the most common forms of birth control" and "potentially penalize" thousands of health care providers "who expect their employees to give women full reproductive care," Cocco writes (Cocco, Akron Beacon Journal, 8/1). The draft regulation, which is still being reviewed within HHS and has not yet been released for public comment, defines abortion as "any of the various procedures -- including the prescription and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action -- that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation."

According to the draft, to receive funding under any program administered by HHS, researchers, clinics, medical schools and hospitals would have to sign "written certifications" that they will not discriminate against people who object to abortion -- using a definition of abortion that could include many forms of hormonal contraception and intrauterine devices. The certification also would be required of state and local governments when allocating grants to hospitals and other institutions that have policies against providing abortions. The rule would affect more than 500,000 hospitals, clinics and medical facilities that receive federal funding (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 7/30).

Cocco writes that although HHS officials "insist" the rule has been drafted "merely because the agency has an obligation to enforce existing conscience rules," the "document reveals its origins" by mentioning state laws enacted in response to religious conservatives' efforts to force pharmacies to "allow employees to refuse to dispense birth control pills to women." The "religious right has only six months left in President Bush's term to continue its war on science and its war on women," Cocco writes, concluding, "The latest sneak attack has been exposed. Congress has a duty to beat it back" (Akron Beacon Journal, 8/1).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is published by the National Partnership for Women and families.

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