http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5405561&page=1
Hillary Clinton Rips Bush Abortion Proposal
Democrats
Argue Proposal Would Threaten Women' s
Access to Contraception
By MATTHEW JAFFE
July
18, 2008 —
Sen.
Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., blasted a Bush administration proposal Friday that
would change the definition of abortion and, she argues, limit women
The draft
proposal written by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), which
began circulating around Capitol Hill this week, would require hospitals
receiving federal funds to hire medical personnel who oppose forms of contraception
including birth control pills.
But
Democratic critics including
"The
more I learn about these rules by the Bush administration, the more appalled I
am and the more determined I am to stop them,"
"This
is a gratuitous, unnecessary insult to the women of the
Clinton
and other prominent Democratic lawmakers including Speaker of the House Rep.
Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., believe that the proposal poses a serious threat to
women
"Women
would watch their contraception coverage disappear overnight,"
The
"Under
these Bush rules, an ideologically-driven hospital administrator or an
emergency room supervisor or a doctor or a nurse on duty could deny this woman
access to emergency contraception, so the woman who survived the assault would
now be at risk of becoming pregnant, denied the care she needs in her hour of
greatest need," she said.
Current
federal law prohibits health-care providers and organizations from
discriminating against people who won
The
Health department released a brief statement this week arguing that it
"Over
the past three decades, Congress has passed several anti-discrimination laws to
protect institutional and individual health care providers participating in
federal programs. HHS has an obligation to enforce these laws, and is exploring
a number of options," the statement reads.
However,
Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., speaking alongside
"Officials
at HHS claim that this rule is just a clarification of the law," Lowey
said. "Well, that
Lowey
noted that the draft proposal defines abortion as "any of the various
procedures that results in the procedures that result in the termination of the
life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth whether
before or after implantation."
"Last
time I checked, by medical definition, a pregnancy does not begin until a
fertilized egg implants in a woman
Lowey is
working with her colleagues in the House of Representatives to send a letter to
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt demanding that he stop this proposal.
Lowey
said Friday that 90 of her fellow House lawmakers have already signed on to the
letter. Clinton and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., also wrote to Leavitt earlier
this week.
The White
House has refused to comment. "We don
But
Democrats, led by
"We
will fight you every step of the way,"
"It
is an end run around the rights of women to make choices about our own health
and we are not going to stand for it," said
Pelosi
demanded that Bush "reject this policy."
"The
majority of Americans oppose this out-of-touch position that redefines
contraception as abortion and represents a sustained pattern of the Bush
administration to reject medical and sound science in favor of a misguided
ideology that has no place in our government," Pelosi wrote in a statement
this week.