The National Women’s Law Center is alerting supporters to the new HHS proposal that could further limit women’s access to health care.
The Bush Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a proposed rule that would undermine patient’s access to vital health services and information by greatly expanding existing laws intended to govern the right to refuse to provide abortion care.
By failing to provide a definition of abortion consistent with accepted medical standards, the proposed rule leaves the door open for doctors, nurses, insurance plans, hospitals, and nearly any other employee in a health care setting to deny access to most forms of birth control. In addition, the proposed rule reaches even further than birth control and abortion: it expands the scope and reach of existing law to limit information on and access to the entire range of health care services — including treatment of infertility, depression, drug addiction, HIV/AIDS, and more.
Their suggested “protest” email:
I am writing in opposition to the regulations that the Department of Health and Human Services proposed on August 26, 2008, that allows patients to be denied health services and information based on the moral beliefs of their provider.
This rule creates problems where none now exist. It disregards the needs of patients, even in medical emergencies, and causes confusion about laws already on the books that protect the religious beliefs of all employees, including health care providers, while allowing employers to ensure that patients get access to vital health care services and information. I seriously urge you to reconsider this dangerous regulation.
And in the meantime, keep rules like this in mind when you’re shopping for a doctor. A simple question like “does he/she prescribe the morning after pill?” before you make your first appointment could save you LOTS of trouble down the road.
