Debate Surrounds HHS' Proposed Opt-Out Abortion Regulation

[The Straight Story]

Debate Surrounds HHS' Proposed Opt-Out Abortion Regulation

By Sandra Basu
Posted: 3-September-2008

WASHINGTON—A new proposed regulation put forth by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that the agency says would protect medical personnel who opt out of performing abortions has stirred a debate in the medical community.

The HHS proposal that was released last month would allow the government to deny federal funding to health care entities that do not accommodate employees who choose not to participate in care such as abortions because it violates their personal, moral or religious convictions. The proposed rule was open for comments for 30 days beginning last month and will be reviewed by federal officials as they work on a final rule, according to HHS.

"This proposed regulation is about the legal right of a health care professional to practice according to their conscience," said HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt in an Aug. 21 statement. "Doctors and other health care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience. Freedom of expression and action should not be surrendered upon the issuance of a health care degree."

While the proposed regulation takes out a controversial definition of abortion that was included in an earlier draft of the regulation that defined abortion as "any of the various procedures—including the prescription and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action—that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation," critics of the proposed rule say they are still concerned that the new proposal would allow health care providers to define birth control methods as abortion.

http://www.usmedicine.com/dailyNews.cfm?dailyID=414