Medicos Can Say No To Abortion

A new rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will protect health care workers from the compulsion to participate in abortions against their conscience.

As per the proposed regulation, published today in the Federal Register, doctors and all other employees in health care institutions receiving federal funds can't be fired or shorn of professional certification if they refuse to participate in abortions, Secretary Michael Leavitt told reporters during a conference call on Thursday.

The rule is intended to prop up other existing regulations that protect doctors and medical staff working in hospitals and clinics from being forced to violate their conscience, Leavitt said.

The present safeguard has been guaranteed to all persons involved in abortions, cutting across lines of hierarchy. Medical personnel will also be protected from facing disciplinary action if they object to offer other services and procedures on moral or religious grounds, by virtue of the present rule.

A proposal from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which requires doctors opposed to abortion to refer patients to their counterparts willing to perform the procedure, or lose their board certification; led to the present regulation, according to Leavitt.

Speaking about the proposal, Leavitt said, “To increase awareness and compliance with this law we drafted the proposed regulation.”

However, the proposal doesn't intend to expand the definition of abortion. “This is about protecting the right of a physician to practice medicine according to his or her moral compass. This regulation is not about contraception, it is about abortion and conscience,” Leavitt added.

David Stevens, a family practitioner and chief executive of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, in Bristol, Tennessee opined that the rule puts ‘teeth’ into existing protections, spelling out that violations won't be tolerated.

In a telephonic interview, Stevens said, “We have 15,000 members and most are happy to talk about abortion, they just won't perform or refer to it, and this protects them.”

However, it has not been all accolades for the new proposed legislation; there has been criticism from different quarters as well. Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc. said in an e-mailed statement, “Women's ability to manage their own health care is at risk of being compromised by politics and ideology.''

The federation, which provides family-planning services including abortions and birth control, has expressed fears that the proposal would set up roadblocks in the way of accurate and needed medical treatment for Americans.

Democratic lawmakers also decried the new rule. In a statement, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York mentioned that this was just another case of the current Bush administration placing ideological interests ahead of the interests of science and women's health.