Constitutional Law

Administration Issues Rule Aimed At Serving Health Care Providers' Beliefs

The Bush administration issued a new Health and Human Services regulation to yank funding from health care providers who do not comply with an order that allows a slew of health care workers to refuse treatment that they claim violates their religious beliefs. The regulation has long been pushed by religious lobbying groups, such as the Family Research Council. It would, according to The Washington Post, apply to more than 584,000 health care facilities and allow some pharmacists, citing religious reasons, to deny birth control medication to women. Additionally, the newspaper reports that the rule, which will cost more than $44 million to implement, could allow infertility doctors to turn away unmarried couples and lesbian women seeking pregnancy by artificial insemination.

The rule has been blasted by a range of medical associations and reproductive rights groups as not only unnecessary to protect the religious liberties of health care workers, but as a serious threat to the quality of health care services in America.

In a press statement, the Center for Reproductive Rights said the new HHS regulation would “drastically hinder women’s ability to get reproductive health services – including basic care such as contraception, counseling and information necessary to make decisions about their own health.” The group dismisses HHS officials’ claims that the regulation will protect health care workers from discrimination. In reality, the Center maintains, “it leaves women who rely on public programs unprotected and seriously violates their rights and needs as patients.”

Full post as published by ACS Blog on December 31, 1969 (boomark / email).