Whatever religious values medical providers hold, we must also respect our patients’ right to know all of their treatment options. For us, patients come first.
Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Patty Murray met yesterday with Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt to express their disagreement with proposed HHS regulations that would broaden existing provider conscience protections.
Major medical professional organizations join together to protest new HHS regulations that would damage the integrity of the relationship between patients and health care providers.
If new HHS regulations are adopted, family planning service providers could be forced to hire people who have moral objections to contraception and would be unable to discipline employees who refuse to provide birth control.
Response to a confusing critique of D.C.’s sex education curriculum; An interview with Judy Waxman on the eve of the impending HHS “conscience” regulation; Roundup of reporting on the new Guttmacher abortion demographics study.
New HHS regulations will do nothing to contribute to the universal goal of reducing the number of unintended pregnancies.
Under current law, recipients of federal money cannot force medical professionals to provide abortion or sterilization services if they object for moral or religious reasons. But proposed regulations would expand these laws at patients’ expense.
New “provider conscience” regulations proposed by HHS could severely limit women’s access to contraception and other health care. During a public comment period, the department continued to frustrate advocates’ effort to comment on the new regulations.
The extremists are coming out of the closet with their real agenda: the assault on birth control.
As the deadline for public comment on the new Department of Health and Human Services refusal clause regulations nears, the President’s Committee on Bioethics discussed how conscience relates to health care at its meeting last week.
