Once again our rights are under attack, and again Hillary fights while Obama sits on the bench (at least this time he’s not playing for the other team). Senator Obama betrayed us and our Constitution on the FISA vote while Hillary stood firm. Now, Bush and HHS are, again, going after women’s reproductive health.
Under the regulation changes, the federal government would redefine abortion as:
any of the various procedures - including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action - that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation. [emphasis added]
This definition is akin to claims that menstruation is murder. The majority of fertilized eggs fail to implant and are sluffed out with the uterine lining during menstruation. Soon the government will be riffling through our trash once a month, testing tampons, sanitary napkins, pantie liners and scraps of tissue for evidence of rogue blastocysts.
Changing the definition will have wide ranging effects:
In suggesting that a fertilized, unimplanted egg can be aborted, the regulations espouse a new, medically unsound definition of pregnancy. (The American Medical Association and the American College for Obstetricians and Gynecologists define pregnancy as occurring after implantation of an egg, but the regulations offer other definitions equal consideration - including medical dictionaries such as “Stedman’s Medical Dictionary” that defines pregnancy as the “state of a female after conception and until the termination of the gestation.”)
In other words, this regulation would allow for a multiple-choice answer to the question, what is an abortion?
“The Department proposes, then, to allow individuals and institutions to adhere to their own views and adopt a definition of abortion that encompasses both views of abortion.”
For example, if a health care provider for a Medicaid-funded family planning clinic opposed birth control and abortion, this person would be allowed to share his or her own view of when pregnancy begins with patients, advise a patient that contraception causes abortion and, under the federal government’s own guidelines, prevent the patient from accessing or obtaining a referral for birth control.
While laws in 16 states ensure that women who are raped and visit a hospital emergency room are offered emergency contraception or information on emergency contraception, the proposed HHS regulation would allow certain hospitals or employees in all states simply to opt-out of providing this crucial women’s health option based on the re-definition of emergency contraception as abortion.
Thirteen states already have laws on the books allowing certain kinds of health care providers to refuse to provide contraception and contraceptive services.
Now I feel really naive. I fell for the “we’re all united in attempting to decrease the amount of abortions” schtick. If that charade were truth, common sense dictates that preventing contraceptive use is not the way to achieve that goal, which is why this move is so transparent.
This isn’t about reducing the amount of abortions, this is about pure and utter control.
To deny women access to contraception as well as abortion is a blatant attempt to return to the Dark Ages when controlling women’s sexuality was paramount. These people want to reinstitute the shame of pregnancy and reinvigerate the “punished with a baby,” and “that’s what you get for being a whore” memes. This is the “crime and punishment” model of reproductive health under the oft accurate guise of “religious belief.”
Crime: being female and sexually active.
Punishment: pregnancy and shame.
Thankfully, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Patty Murray have discovered this steaming pile of bullshit and are taking Bush and the HHS to the mat.
Senators Clinton and Murray Call on HHS to Stop Plans to Obstruct Family Planning Services
Washington, DC - U.S. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Patty Murray (D-WA) today called on the Secretary of Health and Human Services to stop misguided plans to put in place new obstacles for women accessing family planning services. This proposed rule change is a poorly-veiled attempt to roll-back women’s health care options before the current Administration leaves office.
In a letter to Secretary Michael Leavitt, Senators Clinton and Murray underscored that new planned regulations will increase barriers to obtaining health care services, while weakening health care providers’ ability to obtain funding and provide services.
“It is outrageous that the Bush administration is once again putting ideology over women’s health. Instead of undercutting access to contraception and family planning services, the Bush Administration should put prevention first,” said Senator Clinton.
“On the first day of his administration, the President reinstated the Mexico City global gag clause, a harsh, anti-family planning policy that hurt the world’s poorest women and children. Now, on his way out the door it appears that he is trying to limit women’s health care options here at home,” Murray said. “This misguided attempt to restrict health care services and limit access to contraceptives defeats our common goal of reducing the number of abortions in this country.”
Senators Clinton and Murray have worked tirelessly to stop efforts by the Bush Administration to put in place ideological barriers to contraception. Senators Clinton and Murray successfully led the fight to secure an administration decision on the over-the-counter sale of Plan B emergency contraception after more than three years of Administration delay.
The text of the Senators’ letter follows:
Secretary Michael O. Leavitt
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201Dear Mr. Secretary:
It has come to our attention that the Department of Health and Human Services may be preparing draft regulations that would create new obstacles for women seeking contraceptive services.
One of the most troubling aspects of the proposed rules is the overly-broad definition of “abortion.” This definition would allow health-care corporations or individuals to classify many common forms of contraception – including the birth control pill, emergency contraception and IUDs – “abortions” and therefore to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it.
As a consequence, these draft regulations could disrupt state laws securing women’s access to birth control. They could jeopardize federal programs like Medicaid and Title X that provide family-planning services to millions of women. They could even undermine state laws that ensure survivors of sexual assault and rape receive emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms.
We strongly urge you to reconsider these regulations before they are released. We are extremely concerned by this proposal’s potential to affect millions of women’s reproductive health.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely yours,
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
Senator Patty Murray
Where is our spineless fearless presumptuous nominee on this? Your guess is as good as mine. He’s not even voting “present” on this one. Senator Obama has done a lot of pontificating about women’s issues and how we just need to go “get over it” and realize that he’s the best candidate for us. If Senator Obama wants our votes, at the least he needs to show up, but he has to do more than vote present. He’s going to have to take a stand, stop pandering to anti-choice forces, and show us that he’s going to fight for our rights instead of talking out of both sides of his mouth.
It’s sickeningly saddening that the candidate with the fortitude and conviction to take a stand on this issue was forced from the race by the powers that be so we could endure enjoy the deafening silence, or worse, Right wing cheerleading, from the selectee. As I’m nearly doubled-over and trying to avoid vomiting on my Mac, I urge you to visit Alegre’s Corner and read more and take action.
As a humorous side note, for the rest of Bush’s term, Hail to the Chief should be replaced with this:
