How would you feel if you called a federally-funded family planning clinic and the person who answered the phone refused to make an appointment for you until you prove that you're married? How would you feel if you asked for emergency contraception at a public health clinic and were told by the public health nurse that you have to go somewhere else because Plan B is the same as having an abortion? What if these employees were protected by federal regulations so they couldn't be fired, transferred, or disciplined?
The New York Times recently uncovered that the Department of Health and Human Services is drafting regulations that would "prohibit discrimination" against certain health care employees who refuse to deliver contraceptives because of religious or moral objections. Medical organizations, elected officials and activist citizens are protesting the proposed rules because they would declare many forms of contraception to be equivalent to abortion and impose unnecessary and burdensome personnel "conscience protection" rules on federally funded hospitals and clinics in a thinly-disguised effort to interfere with access to birth control. Help us stop the rule change.
Take Action!
- Read the draft regulations.
- Thank your US Representative and your US Senator(s) if they signed on to the House letter or the Senate letter to the President opposing these regulations. Click here to contact the 104 US Representatives and 28 US Senators that signed the letter.
If you need to find your US Representative, click here.
If you need to identify your US Senator, click here.
- If your US Representative or US Senator(s) did not sign on, contact them to encourage their opposition to these regulations.
Learn more:
- Letter from the American Medical Association (AMA),
- Letter from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
- Information from the National Partnership for Women and Families
- Information from the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association
- Joint news release from the Wisconsin Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association and the Wisconsin Coalition for Reproductive Choice
