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prosepetals Status: Member Type of artist: Writer and Professional Smartass Registered: Feb 16, 2007

Artworks: 119 Scraps: 102 Favourites Given: 388 Favourites Received: 165 Stars Given: 40 Stars Received: 36 Comments Received: 20808 Comments Given: 19652 Postcount: 19712 Pageviews: 2921

This article is from ABC News last week - one of the areas of this year's events I've been focusing on. I have included links within the article (as well as a link to the article itself). I copied the article here anyway because I found all of the various ads and "other" links very distracting, so I wanted to give the option within my journal to allow for anyone to read either here or within the ABC News website.


Women's Health Debate Reaches Boiling Point
More Than 325,000 Sign Petition Against Administration's Women's Health Proposal

~Kate Barrett, August 21, 2008

Federal regulations that hundreds of thousands of people fear will stifle women's access to reproductive health care were proposed Thursday after months of speculation.

The Department of Health and Human Services today announced the proposed rule that touches on the hot-button subject of abortion rights, a day after more than a quarter of a million people voiced objections to an earlier draft of the government proposal.

In less than one week, more than 325,000 people signed a petition objecting to the government proposal, Planned Parenthood and MoveOn.org said Wednesday.

The people who signed the petition circulated by Planned Parenthood and MoveOn.org are up in arms over the administration's proposal that first surfaced as a draft earlier than intended this summer.

Those who signed the petition asked the Department of Health and Human Services not to alter the rules for how federal funds are doled out to health care providers.

"Our opinion is that this drastically impacts women's health care and their access to birth control and actually takes some forms of birth control and interprets them as abortion, particularly hormonal birth control," said Ellen Golombek, vice president of external affairs for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, in a Wednesday news conference.

The HHS proposal says more regulations are needed to prevent those who refuse to hire doctors and nurses opposed to abortion rights from receiving federal funds. The proposal stresses that according to current laws, doctors and nurses who oppose the right to abortion cannot be discriminated against for their personal beliefs on women's health.

On Thursday, HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt said it would give doctors and nurses more freedom to follow their conscience.

"The basic idea is that people should not be forced to say or do things they believe are morally wrong," Leavitt said Thursday. "In particular, health care providers should not be forced to perform services they feel violate their own conscience."

He also said, "I'd like to stress one thing: Nothing in the new regulation in any way changes a patient's right to any legal procedure."

The Issue of Contraception

But Golombek said Wednesday that the draft regulation "would allow providers to withhold critical health care information without telling their patients."

As a result, those angry about the proposal also say it muddies the line between abortion and contraception, and they read it as an opening for health care providers to more often refuse to prescribe birth control and other forms of contraception and limit women's health care options.

"I was completely shocked that now, three years after it had happened to me, we're coming back to this," said Megan Kelly Wednesday. Kelly is an Illinois mother who has spoken out against her pharmacy's resistance to filling her birth control.

After she was told she could not receive her monthly prescription or an emergency prescription, Kelly recalled Wednesday that "I would never even have thought that this was an option."

"The pharmacist clearly said to me that she would not fill either of my prescriptions because of her personal belief," she said.

Many states have passed their own laws outlining circumstances in which doctors and pharmacies must fill prescriptions for birth control. The debate about whether federal law can trump state law, in this case regarding women's health, is playing out in courtrooms all the way up to the Supreme Court. The fear among groups such as Planned Parenthood and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association is that the document suggests an effort to change the nation's law is well under way.

But Leavitt said Thursday that "this regulation is not about contraception. It's about abortion and conscience." He also said that unlike the earlier draft, the proposal does not include a definition of abortion.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund and MoveOn.org delivered boxes filled with the signed petitions to HHS Wednesday afternoon.

Contraception Controversy Brews in Washington

The HHS said that the early draft of the proposal was not meant for the public and was leaked out while the administration was still in the process of writing the rule.

But in mid-July, the HHS draft sparked uproar when it circulated on Capitol Hill.

On July 22, 57 groups wrote a letter to Leavitt opposing the draft regulation.

"If implemented, these regulations may pre-empt state laws that protect women's access to health care and undermine the nation's fragile network of safety net providers that serve low income women," the letter said.

But in his Aug. 11 blog post, Leavitt said the intent of the draft was not to limit women's access to health care.

"The issue I asked to be addressed in this regulation is not abortion or contraceptives but the legal right medical practitioners have to practice according to their conscience, and patients should be able to choose a doctor who has beliefs like his or hers," Leavitt said in his post.

He further wrote, "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."

By mid-August, the debate had taken yet another stinging tone.

Leavitt wrote on Aug. 14, "I'm delighted to announce that with the help of Planned Parenthood, my blog -- for the first time -- received more visits than my teenage son's MySpace page."

Today begins a 30-day public comment period on the proposed regulation, after which time the administration will review comments and consider a final regulation.





I watched Hillary speak out on this, and do I ever agree with her, whole-heartedly.


*evil grin*


I didn't watch the Democratic National Convention - though I did listen to Michelle Obama's speech (amazing, by the way). I have no plans on watching the Republican National Convention either, though I did hear about the tongue-in-cheek joke Hillary made about Dubya and McCain being together there in the Twin Cities...

In any case, I received an email about one possible way to get the point across to the lunkheads in the Republican Party (and those in among Dems who agree with this "Contraception = Abortion" bullshit that is being charaded as physician conscience as a means of undermining women's right to complete health care information) ... and reiterate that education = prevention ...

The letter I received is as follows:

Dear Denise,

Here's what I know: after spending an (exhausting! exhilarating!) week at the Democratic National Convention here in Denver, I can tell you that they get it.

Accurate sex education, protecting a woman's right to choose, making sure people have access to birth control ... the Democrats get it, they really do.

And after spending the past few months dealing with some of the worst results of eight years of the Bush administration's backwards policies on health care and sex education ... well, they don't get it. Not one bit.

They don't get that young people need comprehensive, accurate sex education. They don't get that their politics do not belong in the exam room with a woman and her doctor. And they don't get that preventing sexually transmitted diseases starts with one simple item: a condom.

Want to join me in helping them get it, as only Planned Parenthood can? Simple. Send a condom to the Republican National Convention.

$10 per specially printed condom — and the best part? Every dollar we raise will help us elect a president who DOES get it, as well as help us fight to secure laws and policies that protect reproductive health care.

It's hard to fully account for all the damage done over the past eight years. From the reinstatement of the global gag rule back in Bush's first days in office to the most recent rule his administration has passed down which will make it harder for women to get comprehensive reproductive health information, the last eight years have been one long string of catastrophically bad decisions. Decisions that hurt women, men and families.

I don't believe it has to be this way. Preventing sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies really shouldn't be a partisan issue. And, frankly, I believe that we have a responsibility to send that message loud and clear to every single person heading to St. Paul next week.

So, join me. Send a condom to the convention — it's a message that they can't ignore. Each condom we send urges Republican delegates to support vital issues like real sex education and increased access to affordable preventive medical care. Your gift of $10 per condom (or $100 for a dozen) can help get that message to a Republican delegate next week.

Let's face it. This election season, we need to reach out to everyone: Democrats, Republicans, Independents and everyone in between. Thank you for doing your part today.


Sincerely,


Cecile Richards, President
Planned Parenthood Action Fund

P.S. If you haven't already, please also take a moment to add your name to those opposing the Bush administration's most recent rule which could limit the rights of patients to receive complete reproductive health information. Click here — and thank you.

Happy Thursday!



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Bio? Why do I suddenly feel like I'm in the middle of an interview?

Hmm. I live in a flowerpot and I write in green ink. Oh, and I drink a lot of coffee.

That's about it, really.

If you want to know more about me...no, really, a LOT more...look here.

Oh, and this: