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Friday, August 22, 2008

Seeing Red

I don't often get political here -- in fact, I don't think I've EVER gotten political here -- but this just sickens me:

"The Bush administration is proposing a new regulation that could discourage doctors and health-care clinics from providing birth control to women who need it. This proposed regulation deliberately confuses the definitions of contraception and abortion.

  • This regulation could undermine good state laws that require hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape survivors and ensure that pharmacies fill women’s prescriptions for birth control.
  • The proposal could allow health-care corporations (hospitals, HMOs, and health plans) to refuse to provide services or make referrals for birth control.
  • The proposed regulation could affect Medicaid and the Title X family-planning program. For instance, staff at clinics or health-care plans that contract for Medicaid services could refuse to provide contraception."
BY ALL MEANS, let's make it even harder for rape victims to protect themselves, and let's be sure to confuse contraception with abortion whenever possible. Because, you know, women can't POSSIBLY be trusted to make their own decisions about their bodies.

If you're as pissed about this as I am, NARAL has a handy link that allows you to easily share your views with your congresspeople.

Go. Now.

3 comments:

Z. Mulls said...

They've actually backed off of this as of yesterday. Clearly publicizing worked.

While they've stopped trying to conflate birth control with abortion, they are still proposing rules changes to allow someone to morally object to performing an abortion.

The rule is stated very broadly, though and could lead to anyone in a hospital trying to morally object to anything birth-related.

More discussion here:

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/08/22/bush-officially-proposes-anti-abortion-dhhs-rule/

Anonymous said...

Yes, I find this shocking, and I don't *get* it, either. It's not going to happen, however. It's just not. It cannot.
Marcia

Adorable Girlfriend said...

It's not just rape victims, women should have the right to control their own bodies without old white guys in DC telling them what to do!