This is pretty radical, even by Bush administration standards.
Family planning groups and at least one member of Congress objected on Tuesday to a Bush administration memo that defines several widely used contraception methods as abortion and protects the right of medical providers to refuse to offer them.
The proposal would cut off federal funds to hospitals and states that attempt to compel medical providers to offer legal abortion and contraception services to women.
The proposal circulated to media defines abortion broadly to include many types of contraception, including birth control pills and intrauterine devices.
Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said, “This proposed rule will put women’s access to birth control and the information they need to make health care decisions at risk. The proposed rule will radically redefine abortion to include some of the most common and effective methods of birth control. As a result, women’s ability to manage their own health care is at risk of being compromised by politics and ideology.”
Quite right. According to the HHS draft, “abortion” takes on a very broad meaning: “The Department proposes to define 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.'”
That necessarily means that common birth-control methods — including the birth control pill and IUDs — would be designated as “abortion.”
The proposed rule is specifically designed to counter recent state laws enacted to ensure that women can get contraception when they want or need it.
“Despite the fact that several conscience statutes protecting health care entities from discrimination have been in existence for decades, recent events suggest the public and people in the health care industry are largely uninformed of the protections,” the draft reads.
“In May 2007, Connecticut passed a law requiring all hospitals to distribute Plan B to rape victims, despite religious organizations’ objections to the abortifacient nature of the drug,” it adds.
New York Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) explained in a statement, “Federal law currently protects individuals who prefer not to provide abortion services…. This draft regulation would significantly expand the definition of abortion to include birth control for the purpose of conscience clause exemptions. By trumping state laws that guarantee women’s access to prescription contraceptives, this policy would encourage health care institutions seeking to limit access to birth control.”
RH Reality Check has more background on this.
And at the risk of tying literally every story to the presidential campaign, it’s probably worth noting that the Bush administration’s consideration of this new policy comes just a week after John McCain became visibly uncomfortable when asked to explain his votes against insurance coverage of birth control. It’s also a reminder that this Bush administration memo is consistent with McCain’s opposition to contraception in general.