Bush administration seeks to redefine abortion to include birth control
Posted by Scott McCue | 5 Comments
Is it possible that we’ve been lulled into a false sense of security by the current administration yet again? A supposed early draft of new health regulations was released late last week which defined birth control pills as a form of abortion. According to Mike Leavitt, secretary of Health and Human Services, it was an unintentional redefinition.
In proposing a new HHS regulation last month, he said, he only meant to protect the “right of conscience” of federally funded healthcare providers whom he wants spared dismissal because of their objections to birth control or abortion. link
After the backlash of the new proposed regulations, Leavitt wrote on his blog,
An early draft of the regulations found its way into public circulation before it had reached my review. It contained words that lead some to conclude my intent is to deal with the subject of contraceptives, somehow defining them as abortion. Not true.
The Bush Administration has consistently supported the unborn. However, the issue I asked to be addressed in this regulation is not abortion or contraceptives, but the legal right medical practitioners have to practice according to their conscience and patients should be able to choose a doctor who has beliefs like his or hers.
The Department is still contemplating if it will issue a regulation or not. If it does, it will be directly focused on the protection of practitioner conscience. link
I fully understand that there is a choice of conscience that comes with offering abortions and, to some lesser degree, birth control, but defining birth control as abortion does not win any fight. It is simply another thing that will make healthcare in this country more expensive. This fight also leads down that complex road of religious belief which, frankly I don’t have the energy to explore right now.
Moveon.org has teamed up with Planned Parenthood to take on Leavitt to make sure that this crucial redefinition does not occur. If you would like to help, please feel free to add your to support to their petition here.
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August 18th, 2008 @
This is the part of the Republican party that really bugs me. I’m all for smaller government, reduced taxes, free trade, strong national defense, but when you start playing semantics with abortion, that goes too far. So, you don’t want women to have abortions. Fine. But you’ve got to give them something. Abstience only ignores the reality of this world. Men and women like to have sex. Lots of it. Why not encourage responsible sexual behavior (use protection, take the pill, regular screenings) rather than to deny the world we live in? I just don’t get it…
August 18th, 2008 @
I have to agree. Not a Republican on this issue. I think a large percentage of the Republican party probably disagrees with the party’s stand on abortion, but what are you gonna do? As Citizen Kang said, “It’s a two party system! You have to vote for one of us!”
August 19th, 2008 @
We are past, this ladies and gentlemen. Sex is in. Abstinence is a term used by people who can’t get or are afraid to get laid.
August 19th, 2008 @
I’m totally afraid to get laid. Yeah, I like that explanation.
August 21st, 2008 @
America began in the Northeast as a Puritan nation which attempted to regulate all sorts of behavior, especially sexual. It is no longer that same nation, but there are elements of this country which want to control everyone’s sexual behavior. It is to say the least a tiresome battle that must be constantly fought.
On one side there is a country where the majority of births are to unmarried women, yet there is this minority who think that we are still living in the 19th Century, if not earlier. There is a huge disparity between the professed morality and religiosity of the population of the United States and their actual behavior. I for one am sick of listening to the bullshit of the right wing of the Republican Party.
I personally, for religious and moral reasons oppose any abortion for birth control purposes, but it is not the business of the Federal Government, through any means, to interfere with the right of a women to the privacy of her own body. When George W. Bush can get pregnant I’ll listen to what he has to say about birth control.