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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

 
11:55 PM: hypocritical oath [#] [2]

this makes me so angry & horrified i haven't been able to write about it for almost two weeks: the department of health & human services wants to allow employees at federally-funded sites to refuse to participate in "abortions" -- which i put in quotes because it defines "abortion" to include contraception based on "commonly held views on the question of when a pregnancy begins." my jaw and my stomach dropped through the floor when i read that. i think it's completely absurd for the USDHHS to use "commonly held views" to conveniently redefine medical terms. they say "...both definitions of pregnancy are reasonable and used within the scientific and medical community." NO. THEY ARE NOT.

ultimately this proposal would mean that anyone who wanted to opt-out of providing, participating, assisting or referring things like birth control pills, plan b, IUDs, norplant, rape kits, or even condoms would be able to do so without fear of reprisal for NOT DOING THEIR JOBS. it's called a moral decision, but i don't see anything moral about joining the medical profession and then refusing to treat patients. plus, i'll bet no other "moral" objections would be approved for this or any other profession: can you imagine if a doctor refused to treat jews due to her moral beliefs, or a pharmacist decided vaccinations were against his moral beliefs, or if a programmer working for a defense project refused to write code for weapons due to his beliefs? why is this particular belief receiving special protection?

this proposal is entirely beyond the pale: it protects "institutions" but not patients, and could eviscerate states who have done the right thing by passing laws to protect patients. this is the letter i wrote:

Don't allow medical professionals to deny healthcare to women!

The HHS proposal that deliberately confuses the definitions of contraception and abortion is deceitful, distasteful and discriminatory. If the device, drug or procedure is legal, it should be dispensed to women -- regardless of the personal beliefs of staff members.

Patient rights should be paramount in the medical system. I encourage the HHS to support patients, not propaganda. Anyone associated with the medical profession should put their personal beliefs aside in order to serve patients. All patients deserve being treated with dignity, respect and equality rather than shame, scorn and denial of legal services.

Redefining abortion to include contraceptives is a radical leap with neither scientific or medical grounding. Tying it to federal funding is completely unreasonable. At best, the HHS proposal is unnecessary: federal law already allows doctors and even health-care corporations (hospitals, HMOs, and health plans) to refuse to provide services or make referrals for abortion. I don't think that's fair to women, either, but it makes this new proposal to limit birth control (which reduces the rate of abortions) even more alarming and incomprehensible.

First, do no harm. Please do everything you can to try and convince the HHS to abandon this proposed regulation.

you may send your own letter objecting to the proposal to:

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt
Office Phone: 202-690-7000

Email: mike.leavitt@hhs.gov

Fax: 202-690-7203

Correspondence Secretary: 202-690-6392
(Anyone outside of the DC/metro area can call 877-696-6775 toll-free and ask to be transferred to the Secretary's office.)

also, i would encourage you to sign the petitions at planned parenthood & naral. (ann has already done so. thank you, ann!)

and in other depressing fanatical news, doctors in south dakota must tell women seeking abortions that the procedure "ends a human life" and may cause them psychological harm. of course, a fetus is not yet a human life, and carrying around and giving birth to an unwanted child also causes psychological harm, both to the mother and the child. to be fair, perhaps every doctor in south dakota should be required to warn pregnant women about the psychological harm of post-partum depression, the statistics on infanticide, and the medical risks of childbirth. and then have a mandatory waiting period of 2-4 months before returning to see the doctor again.

Comments:

Time to get the Bush apoointees and the so called moralists out of office!

# posted by  Anonymous : Wed Jul 30, 06:13:00 AM PDT

 

i would love to see that happen, anonymous: volunteer for a cause this year which will have an impact. it doesn't even have to be for an organization: something as direct as convincing a cynical voter not to throw their votes away in protest would be a worthwhile thing to do.

religious morality has no place in our government. we don't need faith to be a moral nation, especially given the different faiths we embrace. let our goal be an enlightened nation, pro-moral but faith-neutral.

# posted by  gl. : Wed Jul 30, 09:37:00 PM PDT

 

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