Bush administration: No comment on abortion rule change

The Bush administration responded today to reports that it was drafting a regulation that critics fear would further restrict a woman's access to contraceptive materials or abortions.

Countdown to Crawford and other sites reported Tuesday that the Bush administration is considering a regulation that would allow any healthcare provider to refuse to deliver medical services that violate the worker's moral beliefs. The report was based on a draft of a rule being prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The 39-page document spells out a regulation that could have an effect on pharmacies, clinics, doctors' offices, hospitals and other workers and facilities in the broad healthcare network receiving federal money.

This afternoon, Kevin Schweers, a deputy assistant secretary of Health and Human Services for public affairs, responded in an e-mail: “Over the past three decades, Congress has passed several anti-discrimination laws to protect institutional and individual health care providers participating in federal programs."

He continued: "HHS has an obligation to enforce these laws, and is exploring a number of options.  For example, Secretary [Mike] Leavitt recently sent letters to the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology expressing concern over policies that may have forced providers to choose between compromising their personal beliefs and facing economic and professional sanctions."

Asked for a specific response to the draft of the potential new regulation, he said in a follow-up e-mail: "I read through the blog posting and don't think we'll have anything further to add in the immediate future."

--James Gerstenzang 

Photo: Handout

Comments

[4Heavenssake]

Thank the good Lord that Hillary Clinton was born, elected to the US Senate and continues to represent not only New Yorkers, but also all women.

[4Heavenssake]

P.S. I don't believe any state's pharmacists' licensing allow individuals to deny prescriptions based on their own personal misbeliefs. For the most part, they are not licensed as doctors of medicine or allowed to write prescriptions or to refute a legitimate M.D.'s advice. Certainly, I always appreciate my pharmacists' input, but it's only input. He/she is not the last word on what medications I should be taking.

I hope that pharmacists who deny prescriptions (and don't call the police when they do so) will be tested in the very near future.

[Emily Wortham]

Wonder if HRC's mother thought about abortion when she discovered she was pregnant? Has Hillary thought of this?

[SteveMD2]

All this is just another abomination of the Bush administration, trying to turn our nation into a right wing theocracy so the Repugnicans can stay in power by capturing the votes of the brainwashed millions. Why - so they can continue to steal unprecedented billions for their God of Greed, while the middle class loses it's homes and jobs.

And if medical personell cannot be medical personnel due to their religious beliefs they should go find another occupation. Are we going to allow them to refuse to treat gays, jews, or blacks. Are we going to have some of them support the religious based outrage recently when a family refused medical care for their ill daughter, they only prayed for her. The daughter died of diabetic shock, and the parents have rightly been charged with manslaughter.

What we have today with Bush is the makings of a fascist state - the Corporate-ocrats, allied with religion, invading other countries based on lies, while letting Bin Laden go free. And they dare talk about our security.

Do we want to be the Roman empire of about 300AD when the emperor Constantine joined with the catholic church. The result was a 1000 year dark ages, and the murder of 10's of millions of Arabs during the crusades. Societies have long memories, and that is what laid the groundwork for what eventually became 9/11

And meanwhile our economy is in desperate trouble, while the number of super-millionaires has never before been higher.

[Doug]

So, imagine as a Pharmacist, an 18 year old boy walks in to buy these pills. No girlfriend in sight.

Clearly HE is not going to take them, right? Obviously, they are for a girlfriend. How old is the girlfriend? Well, if she were 18, she would likely be the ones buying them, so we in most cases, we can assume they will be given to a minor

Does the minor girl even know he is buying them? Will she know she is taking them? He could very well be planning to end an unplanned pregnancy without her consent. Either by slipping them into her food or by coercing her to take them.

Right now, that Pharmacist MUST dispense the dangerous medication, despite all his professional, legal, ethical and moral concerns.

Nice....

[Doug]

I forgot to point out that Plan B is available without a prescription for the 18 year old boy.

[byliner]

This is not so much about abortion as it is for discrimination..." to certify that they will not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and even certain types of birth control."

So if there were regulations to deny jobs to nurses who promote abortion, that would be ok?

I think Hillary Clinton needs a hug. She's having post campaign issues.

[Jeff Johnson, Collegeville]

Obama, Clinton and other democrats need to face facts: abortion is murder, straightforward bloody murder, and this country is slowly reversing course on this great sin. Great states like South Dakota are leading the way.

A country that does not recognize the human rights of 1.7 innocent unborn children is doomed to smithereens.

[abby0802]

It should be illegal for a pharmacy to refuse to fill a legitimate prescription from a doctor. Either be a pharmacist or get another job. It is not the right of the pharmacist to make moral judgments on others.

Since there is separation of church and state, any pharmacy, medical facility, etc. that receives money from the government, whether Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare (the military's brand of health insurance), etc., should be denied the right to receive any government money for payment of any services if they are going to discriminate (refuse to serve or provide services) on the basis of religious conviction.

By the way, don't you just love it when MEN try to tell women what they can and cannot do with their own bodies?

Bush's daughter that just got married -- I wonder if she'll practice birth control. Well, the rich don't have to worry. If their daughter/wife/sister/whatever gets pregnant they can afford the child or afford a fancy, high-priced doctor to "take care of it."

Bush and the like would love to send women back to the time of illegal abortions, pregnant and stuck at home with umpteen children underfeet, etc. Of course, he and his like would not want to provide any financial assistance to these same people who will need resources to care for so many children.

I am soooo tired of the "righteous right" telling others how to live.

[Darren]

4Heavenssake said: "Wonder if HRC's mother thought about abortion when she discovered she was pregnant? Has Hillary thought of this?"

Gee, recycle the most stale of the stale, pitiful chest-beating of the religious wrong, why dont' you?

If HRC had been aborted, HRC wouldn't know anything about it, now, would she? Duh....

[Darren]

byliner said: "Obama, Clinton and other democrats need to face facts: abortion is murder, straightforward bloody murder, ..."

No, it is NOT a fact. NOT A FACT. You need to do some research on what is and what is NOT a fact. Just because you, or someone else, SAYS SOMETHING does not make it a fact. Just because you, or someone else BELIEVES SOMETHING does not make it a fact.

Facts are truth. They are able to be proven true. It cannot be proven that life begins at conception, anymore than it can be proven how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

Just because your religion errs in its interpretation of the Bible does make for truth. Any belief that is "proven" by referring to the Bible is, in fact, NOT A FACT. Beliefs are NOT facts.

Learn what a fact IS before you blither about anything else.

[miranda]

Just once I would like to see any health care provider refuse to serve a man for a "moral" reason. Have you ever heard of anyone refusing to give a man a vasectomy, for example? This is another example of the Bush Administration and the neocons trying to force women back to the nineteenth century. It is the War on Women they are waging, and being against abortion is nothing more than a pretense to get dumb people on their side. None of the men I have known in my life that are against abortion, are against birth control. They have the brains to see the difference. Not so GW.

[miranda]

The nineteen year old boy getting the over the counter morning after pill and giving it to his girlfriend without her knowing.... If it was your daughter, would you really want her to be having a baby with this guy anyway?

News Item: protect you daughter by monitoring who she dates, not restricting access to birth control of everyone else.

[miranda]

The nineteen year old boy getting the over the counter morning after pill and giving it to his girlfriend without her knowing.... If it was your daughter, would you really want her to be having a baby with this guy anyway?

News Item: protect you daughter by monitoring who she dates, not restricting access to birth control of everyone else.

[JSM]

Darren, don't get distracted from the point by jibberish. They call beliefs facts and lies truth. Aren't you used to it? While they rob us of our freedom you're letting their lack of intellect infuriate you. Be infuriated, but stick to the point. Hey Jeff, how about you and all the other moonies go to the Great State of SoDak to police eachothers bodies and bedrooms while the rest of us enjoy this wonderful planet called Smithereens.

[BSM]

To Emily W: Helloooo!!! Why do you automatically think when liberals get pregnant they automatically think of aborting? If that were the case there wouldn't be so many of us. Stick to the point of this "rule change" - it's not about abortion, it's about birth control - and birth control is NOT abortion so your point about HRC's mother thinking about abortion is ridiculous.

To Doug: Good grief - First of all your point about the 18-year-old boy is also just ridiculous. If a girl gets a birth control prescription from her doctor it's because she asked for one! Now, if she doesn't want one, but the doctor gives her one anyway, she has the right to not fill it and just tear it up. How did your fictional 18-year-old boy get the girlfriend's Rx if she didn't want it? The dr. certainly wouldn't have made it out to him and why in the heck would she give it him, hmmm? So yes, if the girl wants him to pick it up for her out of convenience the pharmacist is obliged to fill it - but that's because she wants it.

To Jeff: You too need to stick to the point - birth control is not abortion and even if you think abortion is murder birth control is not abortion therefore birth control is not murder! Geez, I can't believe the ignorance here. Oh and by the way, South Dakotans repealed their abortion ban legislation just as soon as they had the chance in Nov. 2006 - look it up! It's no longer being challenged in the courts because opponents of the law successfully petitioned to have HB 1215 placed on the 2006 ballot as a referred measure and South Dakota voters rejected the abortion ban so it is no longer in effect and women in South Dakota have had their reproductive rights restored! I applaud HRC and South Dakotans!.