Women’s Health Organizations Urge Oversight Agency to Hold Bush Administration Accountable – Tell President Bush Not to Pass this Midnight Regulation That Will Jeopardize Women’s Health!

Today, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sent a letter to the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) urging OIRA to take its responsibilities seriously with respect to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS is moving forward with a final regulation that will allow health care providers to withhold vital health care information and services from patients. Although the Bush administration promised not to issue any new regulations after November 1, it’s ready to enact a rule that could allow individual health care providers to redefine abortion to include the most common forms of birth control — and then refuse to provide these basic services.

What exactly does this mean? A woman's ability to manage her own health care is at risk of being compromised by politics and ideology, and if this rule is passed, it could wipe out dozens of state laws that protect women's access to basic reproductive health services.

Read what people are saying about this initiative:
• “It’s unconscionable that the Bush administration, while promising a smooth transition, would take a final opportunity to politicize women’s health. People want government to find commonsense solutions to problems, not to create them by allowing health care providers to withhold critical information and services at a time when affordable health care is hard enough to come by.” (PPFA President Cecile Richards)



• "Ultimately, low-income women, who already face tremendous obstacles getting health care and rely more on public programs, will be hit the hardest by this regulation. This new rule violates a woman's rights and needs as a patient and, in the end, only erects new barriers to her access to reproductive health care.” (Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights)



• "Federal law has sought to balance protections for individual religious liberty and patients' access to reproductive health care. The proposed regulation, being pushed through at the 11th hour of the Bush administration, takes patients' health needs out of the equation. At a time when more and more Americans are either uninsured or struggling with the soaring costs of health care, the federal government should be expanding, not hampering access to important health services." (Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office)

What can you do? Tell the Bush administration to keep its word and stop efforts to redefine "abortion" to include birth control.

Take Action! Tell President Bush: Keep your word. Stop the attack on women's health.

Read the full joint letter to OIRA from PPFA, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the ACLU.

_{Photo Courtesy of E. Scott}