Johanna Neuman Countdown to Crawford The Los Angeles Times August 9, 2008
Mike Leavitt, secretary of Health and Human Services, said he never meant to create a stir over birth control. 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. In a new post on his blog, the secretary said:
"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."
Leavitt added that if the department does now issue a regulation, "it will be focused on the protection of practitioner conscience."
Pro-choice groups weren't buying it.
"Secretary Leavitt's vague comments on the draft HHS rule do nothing to reassure Americans that the administration is not considering redefining abortion to include forms of contraception, thereby jeopardizing women's access to basic healthcare," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "The administration needs to stop playing word games with women's health and state clearly they will reject any regulations that will undermine women's access to basic healthcare."
"Bush and his political appointees have a long, long record of attacks on contraception," agreed NARAL Pro-Choice America President Nancy Keenan. "So Secretary Leavitt's claim that the department never intended to target birth
control isn't believable."
As Countdown to Crawford and others reported, the proposed regulation stirred up a furious debate, with more than 20,000 letters sent to Congress in opposition. And Keenan promised more to come.
"We will continue to engage our activists and work with leaders in Congress to stop this administration from pushing a last-ditch attack on birth control as Bush prepares to leave the White House," she said, adding, "In the face of growing public outrage over this attack on birth control, the Bush administration is trying to backtrack."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/presidentbush/2008/08/abortion-is-bus.html
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