    |
       |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HEALTH & REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
Federal rule would make it harder for women to get reproductive healthcare
Sara Ainsworth, Senior Legal Counsel
October 8, 2008
46 million people in the United States are uninsured. Despite this staggering lack of access to affordable healthcare – and a renewed national conversation on how to address it – the Bush Administration plans to make it harder for people to get the healthcare they need. A proposed Health & Human Services regulation, which may go into effect before the end of the year, would make it harder for women, girls, and all people – especially those dependent on Medicaid or other federally-funded programs - to get access to healthcare, especially reproductive healthcare.
The rule could also undermine important state laws and rules in Washington, Oregon, and other states that require all hospitals, regardless of religious affiliation, to provide emergency contraception to rape victims, and that require health plans to cover contraception on equal terms with other prescription drugs.
The proposed regulation would do this by allowing almost any employee of a health care provider to refuse to treat a patient if he or she had a moral objection to doing so, and creating ambiguity in the definition of abortion. Yes, that’s right – the office receptionist at a family planning clinic, the ambulance driver for a hospital, the nurse at your doctor’s office - could refuse to treat you or tell you about the healthcare you need, as long as the clinic, the hospital, or your doctor’s office receive federal funds (most do).
There are three existing federal laws that allow certain healthcare workers and entities to refuse to provide abortion and sterilization, or participate in certain research. The proposed regulation uses those existing laws to justify expanding refusals well beyond the scope of abortion and sterilization, to almost any health service, including the provision of information and referrals. So women needing abortions can not only be denied the service, but a healthcare provider could refuse to even inform women about or refer women for abortions. This rule could also harm patients needing HIV treatment, same sex couples or single people seeking treatment for infertility, and increase the ongoing discrimination suffered by transgendered individuals seeking healthcare. And, as the first draft of the rule made plain, birth control is a target - the rule intentionally does not define abortion and leaves open the possibility that the individual worker can define it for himself, providing those who oppose birth control an opportunity to deny access to women.
The rule would go into effect after a 30-day comment period. The Northwest Women’s Law Center and the Washington Alliance for Reproductive Choice (WARC) submitted comments voicing our vehement opposition to the proposed regulation.
Learn More
- Northwest Women's Law Center’s letter to HHS.
- WARC’s letter to HHS.
- Letter from Senator Patty Murray and Senator Hilary Clinton sent to HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt.
Informed Consent
Pharmacy Refusals