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EDITORIAL: Don't let Bush restrict access to birth control: Low-income women, who can least afford a child, could find it harder to obtain birth...
(Roanoke Times, The (Roanoke, VA) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jul. 27--Congress passed a law to protect doctors and health care professionals opposed to abortion from employment discrimination. The Bush administration wants to redefine abortion to expand that protection to health care professionals who are also opposed to birth control.
If the administration succeeds and redefines abortion as any attempt to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in a uterus, the consequences would be widespread:
n Planned Parenthood would be forced to hire doctors and nurses who refuse to prescribe birth control pills or even counsel patients on all their options. Countless teenagers, low-income women and those without health insurance could be denied help in family planning and preventing pregnancies.
n Health insurance providers could stop covering the cost of contraceptives for many American women even in states that require them to do so.
n Rape victims could be prevented from learning about a drug that would prevent them from being victimized a second time with an unwanted pregnancy.
The Department of Health and Human Services has drafted a rule that expands on Congress's intent to prevent hospitals and clinics that receive federal funds from firing health providers who refuse to perform abortions.
The draft expands the definition of abortion in such broad terms that most methods to prevent pregnancies would be considered possible termination of pregnancies.
Hospitals wanting to continue to receive federal funds would be required to certify that they do not discriminate against hiring health providers who would refuse to prescribe or tell patients about birth control.
This over-expansion of Congress's intent would mean that hospitals and clinics would be forced to hire staff who refuse to perform their job duties.
Members of Congress are lining up in opposition. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Patty Murray and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are leading the fight; at least 104 House members have signed a protest letter sent to Bush in which they write:
"The regulation's definitions are so broad as to go far beyond abortion politics and threaten virtually any law or policy designed to protect women's access to safe and effective birth control."
The Catholic Church and anti-abortionists have hailed the proposal despite the department's claim that this is simply an attempt to enforce anti-discrimination laws. Even the blind can see through that ruse.
This has nothing to do with job protection and everything to do with forcing an ideology at the expense of women's health.
To see more of The Roanoke Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.roanoke.com/.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Roanoke Times, Va.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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