Obama administration may rescind
'conscience rule'
Officials say the move seeks to
clarify rules for health care workers
By Noam N. Levey |
Washington Bureau
February 27, 2009
WASHINGTON — Taking
another step into the abortion debate, the
Obama
administration Friday will move to rescind a controversial rule
that allows health-care workers to deny abortion counseling or
other family-planning services if doing so would violate their
moral beliefs, according to administration officials.
The rollback of the "conscience rule" comes just two months
after the Bush administration announced it last year in one of
its final policy initiatives.
The new administration's action seems certain to stoke
ideological battles between supporters and opponents of abortion
rights over the responsibilities of doctors, nurses and other
medical workers to their patients.
Seven states, including
California, Illinois and
Connecticut,
as well as two family planning groups, have filed suits
challenging the Bush rule, arguing it sacrifices the health of
patients to religious beliefs of medical providers.
The American College of Obstetrics and
Gynecology has reported cases such as that of a
Virginia
mother of two who became pregnant because she was denied emergency
contraception. In
Texas, the group said, a rape victim had her
prescription for emergency contraception rejected by a pharmacist.
Supporters say the rule protects doctors who should not be forced to
prescribe treatments such as birth control pills or the so-called
morning-after pill.
President Barack
Obama — a longtime supporter of abortion rights —
has been expected to reverse a number of Bush-era policies
restricting access to family-planning services.
But he also has been sensitive to the explosiveness of the
reproductive-rights issue.
Last month, without ceremony Obama overturned a ban on U.S. funding
for international aid groups that provide abortion services.
The move by the Department
of Health and Human Services to throw out the conscience rule is
being made equally quietly as the budget plan is made public.
Officials stressed Thursday
that the administration is looking for input from people across the
ideological spectrum before it finalizes the rollback after the
standard 30-day comment period.
"We believe that this is a complex issue that requires a thoughtful
process where all voices can be heard," said one official, who was
not authorized to speak on the record.
Officials said the administration will consider drafting a new rule
to clarify what health-care workers can reasonably refuse for
patients.
For more than 30 years, federal law has allowed doctors and nurses
to decline to provide abortion services as a matter of conscience, a
protection that is not subject to rulemaking.
In promulgating the new rule last year, Health and Human Services
Secretary Mike Leavitt said it was necessary to address
discrimination in the medical field.
He criticized "an environment in the health-care field that is
intolerant of individual conscience, certain religious beliefs,
ethnic and cultural traditions and moral convictions."
Officials said the Obama administration's goal is to make the rule
clearer.