Seven states and two organizations have sued the Bush administration in an attempt to block a federal regulation that would protect health-care workers who refuse to perform abortions or other medical procedures because of religious or moral reasons.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island.
Blumenthal said the regulation would put women's health care at risk and would undercut state contraception laws. [...]
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the American Civil Liberties Union, which was acting on behalf of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, also filed separate suits Thursday.
The outgoing Bush administration this week will finalize a regulation establishing a "right of conscience" allowing medical staff to refuse to participate in any practice they object to on moral grounds, including abortion but possibly birth control and other health care as well.
In transition offices across town,officials in the incoming Obama administration have begun considering how and when to undo it.
The regulation is one of a swath of abortion and other reproductive-health issues under review by the Obama team, which is preparing to reverse a variety of Bush measures, according to officials close to the transition. The review is part of a sweeping scrutiny of Bush-era legislation and regulation on issues across the federal government, from environmental and labor rules to defense spending.
On abortion and related matters, action is expected early on executive, regulatory, budgetary and legislative fronts.
Decisions that the new administration will weigh include: whether to cut funding for sexual abstinence programs; whether to increase funding for comprehensive sex education programs that include discussion of birth control; whether to allow federal health plans to pay for abortions; and whether to overturn regulations such as one that makes fetuses eligible for health-care coverage under the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Women's health advocates are also pushing for a change in rules that would lower the cost of birth control at college health clinics.
Obama aides will have to settle many of these questions in issuing their first budget in February.
Every time I read about Obama's plans, I have to pinch myself. Eight years of abuse tends to result in reflexive wincing, even after the bad guy has left and the good guy has swooped in to save the day.
The outgoing Bush administration is planning to announce a broad new "right of conscience" rule permitting medical facilities, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers to refuse to participate in any procedure they find morally objectionable, including abortion and possibly even artificial insemination and birth control.
It also seeks to cover more employees. For example, in addition to a surgeon and a nurse in an operating room, the rule would extend to "an employee whose task it is to clean the instruments," the draft rule said.
The "conscience" rule could set the stage for an abortion controversy in the early months of Barack Obama's administration.
There now. Isn't that a super duper special reminder of what the Chimpenfuhrer has up his sleeve?
While the rule could eventually be overturned by the new administration, the process might open a wound that could take months of wrangling to close again.
Health and Human Services Department officials said the rule would apply to "any entity" that receives federal funds. It estimated 584,000 entities could be covered, including 4,800 hospitals, 234,000 doctor's offices and 58,000 pharmacies.
Proponents, including the Christian Medical Assn. and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, say the rule is not limited to abortion. It will protect doctors who do not wish to prescribe birth control or to provide artificial insemination, said Dr. David Stevens, president of CMA.
"The real battle line is the morning-after pill," he said. "This prevents the embryo from implanting. This involves moral complicity. Doctors should not be required to dispense a medication they have a moral objection to."
Critics of the rule say it will sacrifice patients' health to the religious beliefs of providers.
Gee, ya think?
Judith Waxman, a lawyer for the National Women's Law Center, said Leavitt's office has extended the law far beyond what was understood. "This goes way beyond abortion," she said. It could reach disputes over contraception, sperm donations and end-of-life care.
"This kind of rule could wreak havoc in a hospital if any employee can declare they are not willing to do certain parts of their job," she said.
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