Southwest Women’s Law Center joins national effort to protect women’s access to birth control
The Bush Administration has drafted a proposed regulation that would dramatically undermine women’s health by blocking access to common forms of birth control. The Southwest Women’s Law Center joined over fifty other organizations to urge Michael Leavitt, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to drop its effort to enact such a harmful policy. Click here to see a copy of that letter.
The overwhelming majority of Americans support policies that make it easier for women to obtain contraceptive services. If adopted, the Administration’s draft policy would make it much more difficult for women to obtain birth control and information about birth control. The women who would suffer the most from the draft policy are low-income women, disproportionately women of color, who are dependent on publicly-funded health care for family planning services.
The draft regulation also would significantly limit New Mexico statutes that ensure that rape victims receive emergency contraception and that health care institutions do not interfere with physicians who provide comprehensive family planning services and information to their patients.
The regulation was drafted supposedly to clarify and explain to the public how current federal laws work. But the actual effect of the policy would be to dramatically expand and change the law. Currently, there are “federal refusal clauses” in the law that are very narrow and focus on abortion services. The Administration’s draft regulations would redefine “abortion” to include common forms of birth control. This would allow for institutions that receive federal funds and individual providers to refuse to provide basic contraceptive services and information. The regulations would create new law that Congress never adopted, and would directly contradict the longstanding medical definition of pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) sent its own letter to Secretary Leavitt stating: “This definition is inconsistent with all established medical authorities and is so broad and inexact that it could include even basic widely used methods of birth control, including oral contraception and intrauterine devices (IUDs).” Click here for a copy of the ACOG letter.
If adopted, the proposed regulation would place ideology before science. The Southwest Women’s Law Center is closely monitoring developments with this draft regulation and will continue to fight so that women are able to make their own important personal medical decisions.