7-24-08, 9:19 am

Dozens of women's, health care, religious, civil rights, and labor organizations are protesting proposed new Department of Health and Human Services’ draft regulations that could significantly limit women’s access to basic reproductive health services, including some of the most common forms of birth control.

According to a letter to the federal government signed by the almost 60 such groups, HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, this week, intends to put into place a rule that may increase 'federal exemptions for individuals and institutions that deny women access to basic information and contraceptive services is especially egregious in light of our current national health care crisis.'

In a press statement this week, Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards suggested the Bush administration's new policy blurs contraceptive usage and abortion. “This is a politically motivated regulatory change that deliberately confuses contraception with abortion and allows political agendas to trump patients’ needs,' she noted.

The letter stated, 'the draft regulation essentially rewrites those laws to permit institutions as well as individuals to refuse to provide women access to not only abortion, but to contraceptive services and information.'

'Moreover,' it went on, 'this rule permits health care providers to refuse to perform any service they deem morally objectionable – which raises critical questions about access to all health care services.'

The Bush administration's new policy, clearly the last ultra right gasp of a lame duck administration, goes against the popular opinion of the vast majority of Americans. More than 7 in 10 Americans, the letter to Leavitt pointed out, 'strongly support policies that make it easier for women to obtain contraceptive services.'

The rule would essentially view abortion through an ideological lens rather than by scientific and medical definitions. Leavitt's rule says that abortion is 'any of the various procedures – including prescription, dispensing, 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.” Many types of medically safe birth control devices or drugs would fall under this broad and politically motivated category.

Because of this redefinition, the letter added, 'If implemented, women seeking care at a Title X [federally] funded clinic may no longer be assured they could access common forms of birth control or that if pregnant, they will receive information about all of their options.'

The coalition of groups that signed the letter include the American Association of University Women, American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association, Black Women’s Health Imperative, League of Women Voters of the US, National Association of County and City Health Officials, National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health, and YWCA USA.