Birth Control: They're at it again
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL
August 10, 2008
The Bush administration has heard the outrage over a proposed regulation that would dishonestly define birth control as abortion. A Cabinet officer is trying to calm the objections from women's groups and Democrats such as Sen. Patty Murray, but only sustained public and political pressure can stop the repeal of a half-century of progress in family planning.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt used a personal blog to deny he intends to do anything other than strengthen legal protections for health care professionals against any requirement they, against their personal conscience, be forced to perform abortions. Leavitt blamed the media – who else? – for a misunderstanding: "An early draft of the regulations found its way into public circulation before it had reached my review. It contained words that lead some to conclude my intent is to deal with the subject of contraceptives, somehow defining them as abortion. Not true."
Even trusting Leavitt's statement, there is no reason to doubt an intent within the administration to cater to fundamentalist and anti-women agendas during President Bush's final months in power. The regulation as drafted would clearly impinge on states' laws on emergency contraception and potentially on whether employers' insurance companies are required to cover contraceptive services.
Murray and Sen. Hillary Clinton obviously got Leavitt's attention with a letter they wrote urging him to reconsider the regulation. Leavitt said, "The Department is still contemplating if it will issue a regulation or not. If it does, it will be directly focused on the protection of practitioner conscience." We trust Murray and Clinton know this administration well enough to put their considerable energy and power into verifying that assurance.
This page last updated August 16, 2008 10:40 .