Attorney General Ready To Fight

Bush Administration Ruling

HARTFORD — State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced that he is ready to fight a federal rule — issued by the Bush administration December 18 — that jeopardizes women’s access to birth control and other medically necessary health care services and information, including in cases of rape.

The rule requires federally funded health care institutions to certify in writing that they will respect the conscience rights of health care workers who refuse to participate in any health care service due to religious or moral objections — including birth control.

In September, Mr Blumenthal led a 13-state coalition to fight the rule before it was adopted, calling on the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in formal comments to entirely abandon the Provider Conscience Regulation.

Approaching the final hour of the Bush administration, the HHS officially adopted the rule December 18.

“I will fight this outrageous rule — the outgoing Bush administration’s latest and last swipe at women’s health,” Mr Blumenthal said in a release. “This rule is an appalling insult and abuse — a midnight power grab to deny access to health care services and information, including even to victims of rape. Our strong coalition of states will fight fiercely to block this reprehensible threat to hard-fought patient and victim rights.

“This Provider Conscience Rule, thinly veiled as a promise of fairness to doctors, jeopardizes assurances that sexual assault victims are provided emergency contraception,” the attorney general continued. “This new rule puts personal agendas before patient care — protecting doctor objections, but entirely ignoring the rights of rape victims and others to access birth control and other vital services. This rule upsets the careful balance between physician beliefs and a patient’s right to affordable, accessible health care.”

In their comments on the regulation when it was initially proposed, the attorneys general said the rule could have significant adverse consequences on the delivery of health care services to patients and victims of rape; the ability of organizations to fulfill their core mission of assisting patients and the ability of state governments to ensure equal access to medically necessary services.

States that have so far fought alongside Mr Blumenthal include: Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, and Vermont.