Calif. AG, Family Planning Advocates Say Proposed HHS Rule Would Overturn State Birth Control Law

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 22 Aug 2008 - 6:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

California Attorney General Jerry Brown (D) and some family planning advocates on Wednesday said that a draft HHS regulation would prohibit the state from enforcing the state law requiring insurance coverage for birth control to women, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, 8/21). Also on Wednesday, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and MoveOn.org Political Action submitted a petition with more than 325,000 signatures urging HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt to withdraw the draft rule from consideration, ABC News reports (Barrett, ABC News, 8/20).

According to the Chronicle, the administration drafted the proposal to implement laws prohibiting recipients of federal funds from penalizing health practitioners who refuse to perform abortions or provide abortion referrals (San Francisco Chronicle, 8/21). At the news conference announcing the petition, Ellen Golombek, PPAF vice president of external affairs, said the draft regulation "would allow providers to withhold critical health care information without telling their patients." According to ABC News, other advocates noted that the draft "muddies the line between abortion and contraception, and consider it an opening for health care providers to more often refuse to prescribe birth control and other forms of contraception and limit women's healthcare options" (ABC News, 8/20).

The leaked draft rule 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" - a definition of abortion that could include many forms of hormonal contraception and intrauterine devices. (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 8/11).

Brown in an Aug. 4 letter to Leavitt wrote, "By financially punishing noncompliant states with the loss of (federal) funding, the regulation would intrude on the authority of states to enact and enforce laws that ensure women's access to birth control." California's law, which was passed in 2000 and upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2004, was passed in response to the decision by some insurance companies to cover male infertility drugs but not oral contraception for women. The law exempts church employees, but the state Supreme Court ruled that the measure applies to the 52,000 employees of Catholic hospitals and 1,600 employees of Catholic Charities.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by Catholic Charities on the California ruling and a similar ruling by the New York Supreme Court. Twenty-five states have laws similar to California's measure, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

If the draft HHS regulation is enacted, it would be a "giant step down a road that will potentially leave women with a major loss of access to contraceptive methods," Kathy Kneer, CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said. She added that opponents of the rule will continue urging members of Congress and federal officials to stop it from being issued, adding that if they fail they will ask the next president to repeal the rule (San Francisco Chronicle, 8/21).

Leavitt in an Aug. 7 blog entry said he has ordered the draft regulation to be rewritten with a narrow focus on allowing health care workers to refuse to participate in procedures they find objectionable. He also said that HHS is "still contemplating if it will issue a regulation or not. If it does, it will be directly focused on the protection of practitioner conscience." However, Leavitt did not say what he meant by "practitioner conscience" or the extent to which the protection would allow health care workers to deny services (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 8/11).

David Stevens, CEO of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, said many of the group's 15,000 members have been denied jobs or promotions for refusing to perform abortions or prescribe contraceptives that they believe are the equivalent of abortion. "There is an organized effort to force health care professionals to do things that violate their conscience," Stevens said. According to the Chronicle, the proposed rule is backed by some other religious organizations opposed to abortion, and it is opposed by the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and 150 members of Congress, including Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) (San Francisco Chronicle, 8/21).

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 a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.