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Why would anybody be surprised that the Bush administration plans to propose new federal regulations allowing
health care providers to run roughshod over established scientific and
medical principles, even when they are doing it with your 
taxpayer money?
After all, Bush's first official act after taking office was to issue an executive order reinstating the global gag rule,
which prevents international family planning programs receiving U. S.
Funding from even uttering the word abortion. Why would anybody be
surprised that an administration willing to breach medical ethics by
preventing doctors from giving patients full information about their
health care options is also willing in its waning days to go the second
mile for its zealous anti-choice base and redefine medical ethics to
suit their ideology? Even to redefine important forms of contraception
as abortion?
The right has made sexual matters unspeakable while
the left and center have made it a central tenet to keep these matters
private. No wonder that even the public discussion of reproductive
issues so often gets giggles and Bush’s minions get a free ride as they
go about their merry way to steamroller science with their ideology.
Here's some of the text of the proposed regulations, explained by Cristina Page's excellent analysis on RHRealityCheck:
In a spectacular act of complicity with the religious right, the
Department of Health and Human Services Monday released a proposal that
allows any federal grant recipient to obstruct a woman's access to
contraception. In order to do this, the Department is attempting to
redefine many forms of contraception, the birth control 40% of
Americans use, as abortion. Doing so protects extremists under the
Weldon and Church amendments. Those laws prohibit federal grant
recipients from requiring employees to help provide or refer for
abortion services. The "Definitions" section of the HHS proposal states,Abortion: An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy. There are two
commonly held views on the question of when a pregnancy begins. Some
consider a pregnancy to begin at conception (that is, the fertilization
of the egg by the sperm), while others consider it to begin with
implantation (when the embryo implants in the lining of the uterus). A
2001 Zogby International American Values poll revealed that 49% of
Americans believe that human life begins at conception. Presumably many
who hold this belief think that any action that destroys human life
after conception is the termination of a pregnancy, and so would be
included in their definition of the term "abortion." Those who believe
pregnancy begins at implantation believe the term "abortion" only
includes the destruction of a human being after it has implanted in the
lining of the uterus.The proposal continues,
Both definitions of pregnancy inform medical practice. Some medical
authorities, like the American Medical Association and the British
Medical Association, have defined the term "established pregnancy" as
occurring after implantation. Other medical authorities present
different definitions. Stedman's Medical Dictionary, for example,
defines pregnancy as "[t]he state of a female after conception and
until the termination of the gestation." Dorland's Medical Dictionary
defines pregnancy, in relevant part, as "the condition of having a
developing embryo or fetus in the body, after union of an oocyte and
spermatozoon.
"I will do
everything in my power to restrict abortions," George W. Bush said in
Oct 22, 1994 when he was running for governor or Texas. No one should
be surprised then at this latest assault. He is merely continuing to
deliver on his promise.
But do not be confused by what the real agenda is, because it’s not about abortion at all. If you're a woman, it’s about you.
More
on this and what you can do about it next. Meanwhile, here's the
National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association's action
alert with a letter you can send to DHHS Secretary Mike Leavitt.
cross posted at http://www,GloriaFeldt.com/heartfeldt-politics-blog
