Bush Administration's HHS Midnight Regulation Jeopardizes Women's Health

ALBANY, NY (12/19/2008)(readMedia)-- Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood (UHPP) President/CEO Patricia McGeown, sharply criticized a last-minute regulation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that poses a serious threat to patients' rights to receive complete and accurate health care information and services.

"This midnight regulation, issued in the last days of the Bush administration, directly undermines this state's fragile health care system and much of the progress we have made over the last decade to ensure patients' access to critical health care information and services," said UHPP President/CEO Patricia McGeown. "We look forward to working with our Congressional representatives and our state leadership, as well as with President-elect Obama's transition team to repeal this disastrous rule and expand patients' access to full health care information and services - not limit it."

Under the new rule, doctors, physicians, and health care workers of all kinds can deny patients vital health care information and services, without the patient even knowing. With more than 45 million Americans currently uninsured, this is no time to make access to health care even more difficult. In addition, this rule could potentially create total chaos in an already stressed health care system, particularly for low-income women and families whose options are already limited.

The rule could directly impact New York regulation and legislation designed to expand and protect access to critical health care services. Specifically, the New York State Health Department requires all state-funded family planning centers to provide full options counseling to all women facing unplanned pregnancies. The Women's Health and Wellness Act requires all employers who offer prescription coverage to employees to include the full scope of federally approved birth control options and the Unintended Pregnancy Prevention Act requires all hospital emergency rooms to make Emergency Contraception available to survivors of sexual assault.

"Advocates for women's health have worked together over the last decade with successive Governors, Health Commissioners and state legislators to ensure that all women in New York, regardless of income or insurance status, would have access to the information and services they need to make responsible, informed decisions about their health," explained McGeown. "We are proud of the progress that has been made and of the services now available to the citizens of this state. It is shocking that the Bush administration chose to finalize its midnight regulation and to take this parting shot at women's health directly undermining so many years of progress". "From day one, this administration has made ideology and politics a priority over patients' rights and needs, and this regulation is just one more blatant example."

Roughly 200,000 U.S. citizens, federal and state elected officials, medical organizations, and health care advocacy and religious organizations submitted comments opposing the misguided rule. The regulation broadens the scope of existing laws and reaches beyond congressional intent by focusing solely on providers, with absolutely no protections to ensure patients receive critical health care information and services.

In addition to the comments of 90,000 Planned Parenthood supporters, opposition was also voiced through official comments to HHS by these elected officials at the federal and state levels:

• a bipartisan coalition of more than 100 members of Congress

• a bipartisan group of governors, including Governors John Baldacci (D-ME), Chet Culver (D-IA), Jim Doyle (D-WI), Christine Gregoire (D-WA), David Paterson (D-NY), M. Jodi Rell (R-CT), Edward Rendell (D-PA), and Ted Strickland (D-OH)

• a bipartisan group of 13 attorneys general from Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, and Vermont; Attorneys general from California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Minnesota, submitted individual comments.

• State legislators from a number of states wrote in opposition to the regulation, including state legislators from Oregon, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

In addition, The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Legal Counsel and the Commissioners submitted letters of opposition to this rule, saying it overlaps with existing law, that it is potentially confusing to the regulated community, and that it will impose a burden on covered employers, particularly small employers.

Nongovernmental organizations also made their opposition known:

• More than 80 organizations joined Planned Parenthood in signing onto an opposition letter, including the American Nurses Association, the American Medical Student Association, the American Social Health Association, the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, and several prominent HIV/AIDS, international health, and gay rights organizations.

• Prominent health care provider associations and health advocacy organizations weighed in with their opposition, including the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the National Association of Community Health Centers, the American Public Health Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs.

In May 2008, the White House issued a directive to administrative agencies to submit all proposed regulations by June 1, 2008, except in "extraordinary circumstances." The purpose of the deadline was to ensure that agencies did not engage in ill-conceived rulemaking prior to a change of administration. Yet HHS submitted its proposed rule in late August 2008 and put it on the fast track with a shortened 30-day public comment period. Now this last-minute regulation will take effect just two days before the next administration takes office.

Click HERE for more resources on opposition to HHS midnight rule, including the letters listed above.

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Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood is a community-based non-profit organization providing advocacy, education and medical services for reproductive health care in the capital region since 1934. The agency provided health care services to 11,000 patients at health centers located in Albany, Columbia, Greene and Rensselaer Counties and presented over 500 education programs reaching over 7,000 youth and young adults in 2007. UHPP services are delivered with special concern for the underserved.