Planned Parenthood CEO Condemns New HHS Rule

On August 28, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a draft 42-page "rule" that would require health care institutions and individuals to provide written certification of compliance with federal laws that address personal conscience in health care; most specifically as it relates to an individual's right to refuse to participate in abortion or sterilization services. It makes clear that this right of personal conscience must be extended to all those associated with the institution, including volunteers, trainees, and all staff from those who clean instruments to nurses and doctors.

And while the focus of the proposed rule appears to be on abortion services, its language implies a far broader agenda. The rule forbids any health care provider that receives federal funds from requiring "any individual to perform or assist in the performance of any part of a health services program...if such service or activity would be contrary to his religious beliefs or moral convictions."

Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood President and CEO, Patricia McGeown, questions whether health care consumers should have to always worry if the care they need and require might be delayed, impeded or compromised by the personal moral or religious beliefs of someone involved in providing that care.

"This country faces a huge crisis in the form of uninsured and underinsured men and women who do not have access to affordable, quality, necessary medical services," asserts McGeown. "This administration should be tearing down barriers and not inventing reasons to erect more."

"Through this proposed rule," asserts McGeown, "the Bush administration continues its relentless war on women. In a free society, access to the full range of reproductive health services and comprehensive, medically accurate information should be standard care. But this administration believes that a woman's access to health services should be limited by anyone's and everyone's religious or moral beliefs. It's appalling how little regard the administration has for a woman's conscience and moral conviction.