Planned Parenthood Still Attacking Bid to Protect Pro-Life Docs on Abortion
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 6, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Planned Parenthood is continuing its relentless onslaught against a proposal within the Bush administration to protect pro-life doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who don’t want to be involved in abortions.
The measure deals with employment discrimination but Planned Parenthood has sold it to its members as a plan to hinder the distribution of birth control.
Under the Bush plan, enforcement is ramped up on existing laws that prevent employers receiving federal funds from discriminating against medical staff who want nothing to do with abortions.
The measure also protects medical centers that don’t want abortions done on site.
As Planned Parenthood has said — and continued to maintain in a Wednesday email — the abortion business believes the Bush administration is trying to redefine birth control as abortion.
That’s because the definition of abortion in the proposal makes it clear the administration is talking about the destruction of human life from the moment of conception — when a new human life is conferred.
In her email to the pro-abortion group’s supporters, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards said her group has been able to get tens of thousands of emails in to the Bush administration opposing the protection of pro-life medical professionals.
"You were one of more than 33,300 Planned Parenthood supporters who sent a message to the president," she said.
Richards pointed to the media hubbub that has resulted from the first details of the plan and said she is glad "the secret gift to far-right extremists that Bush tried to keep quiet was the focus of increased media scrutiny."
She also described the continuing efforts to oppose it.
"Meanwhile, we are building a coalition of health care providers, women’s rights organizations, congressional leaders, and thousands of citizens to fight back against Bush’s health care sellout," she said.
Part of that efforts involves getting pro-abortion activists to leave comments on the blog maintained by Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt.
"Leavitt uses his official blog to communicate about government policy," the group says. "Leave a comment on Secretary Leavitt’s blog urging him to respond to … growing concerns that the Bush administration’s proposed rule would severely threaten women’s health care."
Pro-life groups are backing the measure and saying the abortion definition is very clear — that any drug or procedure that ends the life of an unborn child after the point of conception is an abortion.
The proposed HHS rules define abortion as “any of the various procedures — including the prescription, dispensing 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.”
Abortion advocates have a problem with the implantation wording because the morning after pill can cause an abortion in some instances of an unborn children between the points of fertilization and implantation.
As a result, the drug is abortifacient in some circumstances and abortion activists would rather have the public believe Plan B is a non-abortion birth control pill that only works to prevent pregnancy not destroy a human life.
Under the proposal, facilities receiving federal funds would be required to sign written certifications that they don’t force staff to be involved in abortions as a prerequisite for receiving the monies.
The Health and Human Services Department issued a statement responding to the criticism.
"Over the past three decades, Congress has passed several anti-discrimination laws to protect institutional and individual health care providers participating in federal programs," the department said. "HHS has an obligation to enforce these laws and is exploring a number of options."
ACTION: Go to Secretary Leavitt’s web page and leave a pro-life comment urging strong support for the policy to protect pro-life doctors and medical centers from being forced to be involved in abortions. You can leave a comment at https://secretarysblog.hhs.gov
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