The Crusade Against Reproductive Rights: With a Concience and Gagging

Women's reproductive rights are always being challenged, especially in America. This blog is way over due, but you know what they say, better late than never. Over the past couple of years I have struggled with whether or not to be pro-choice, but this entry is about more than that, it's about receiving health care.

In a midnight regulation push, entitled Right of Conscience, Bush would allow anyone to refuse to participate in medical procedures they feel goes against their religious beliefs.

The far-reaching regulation cuts off federal funding for any state or local government, hospital, health plan, clinic or other entity that does not accommodate doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other employees who refuse to participate in care they find ethically, morally or religiously objectionable.--Washington Post

This would go farther then safeguarding pharmacists from selling the morning after pill, but to refusing AIDS treatment to unmarried or gay patients, refusing blood transfusions to patients, or treating mental illness with anything but prayer.

This sort of regulation leads to in Texas, a pharmacist rejected a rape victim's prescription for emergency contraception. In Virginia, a 42-year-old mother of two became pregnant after being refused emergency contraception. In California, a physician refused to perform artificial insemination for a lesbian couple. (In August, the California Supreme Court ruled that this refusal amounted to illegal discrimination based on sexual orientation.)--American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

What worries me the most is, where will this stop: will it go so far as to deny the selling of condoms if the person behind the counter has a problem with it. This regulation even further harms patients' rights--should medical providers really be the controller of moral issues? The reprocutions of such regulations are ridiculous, what it comes down to is: the President would rather see a rape victim denied treatment, or an AIDS patient denied drugs than have a pharmacist upset about something they sold.

Bush has always been against women's reproductive freedoms beginning with day one in office. On his first day he reinstated the Global Gag Rule, which restricts foreign non-governmental organizations that receive federal family planning funds from using their own, non-U.S. funds to provide legal abortion services, lobby their own governments for abortion law reform, or even provide accurate medical counseling or referrals regarding abortion.

It is called a “gag” rule because it stifles public debate on abortion-related issues, requiring private organizations overseas to choose between continuing their non-U.S. funded efforts to change public policy around abortion in their own countries, or receiving U.S. family planning funds. Restricting their freedom to engage in public policy debates undermines a central tenet of U.S. foreign policy—the promotion of democracy abroad—and its core principle of free and open debate.

Regardless of whether abortions are legal, women in desperate situations still seek them out. As a result, abortions performed under unsafe conditions remain a major public health concern. About 70,000 women die each year from septic and incomplete abortion, many of them leaving young children behind. Many more suffer serious illness or injury. Improving access to family planning can help prevent unwanted pregnancies and reduce such tragedies.

Shortly after the reinstatement of the gag rule, shipments of U.S.-donated condoms and contraceptives completely ceased to 16 developing countries, primarily in Africa. Leading family planning agencies in another 16 countries—mostly in Africa—have lost access to much-needed U.S. condoms and contraceptives as a result of their refusal to accept the gag rule restrictions.
Cutbacks in family planning services are likely to contribute to an increase in abortions. Research from several countries reveals a lower reliance on abortion in areas where contraceptive use is higher, reflecting greater access to family planning services.

Panning providers have developed the expertise, services and information to counsel individuals about safer sex, help people avoid high-risk behaviors, and screen for and treat sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that increase susceptibility to HIV infection. Although it applies only to family planning funds, the gag rule prevents the United States from working with some of the most effective front-line partners serving two of the populations at greatest risk of STIs, including HIV/AIDS—women and youth.

Below is a video that highlights the issues with the Global Gag:



These violations of reproductive rights are bigger than just religious views, they seriously compromise women's health.