Group backs suits against 'conscience rule'
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A regional family-planning organization has announced support for three federal lawsuits filed in Connecticut to block the Monday implementation of the Department of Health and Human Services' "conscience rule."
Adagio Health, which provides services in 23 counties in Western Pennsylvania, is supporting the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, which filed its lawsuit in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union.
"It behooves our national organization to do this," said Richard Baird, president and chief executive officer for Adagio Health, an NFPRHA member. "All have to follow the law, and we will. But we're hoping it doesn't get to that."
The conscience rule allows health-care providers to refuse to provide a patient the full range of legal options for medical procedures or treatment, if the provider objects to a particular course of action on moral or religious grounds.
That could include refusing to inform women of their reproductive rights or to provide contraceptive services including emergency contraception to victims of rape or sexual abuse. It also allows a provider to decline to refer a patient or client elsewhere for care or alert a supervisor of the actions taken. The issue divides the nation along anti-abortion vs. pro-abortion lines.
Yesterday Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, also representing six other states, held a news conference with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and NFPRHA to announce separate but parallel lawsuits seeking an injunction to block the rule from taking effect.
He said the rule violates a state's right to enact its own rules and lacks legal definitions of "abortion" and "discrimination," allowing for interpretations that could characterize birth-control methods as forms of abortion.
It also could prevent men and women with low incomes or few options for care to get full information and services.
Rebecca Ayer, director of media affairs for Health and Human Services, said the department hasn't had the opportunity to review the lawsuits, but will respond in court to any pending litigation. "The department followed appropriate procedures to put the regulation in place, and the regulation is fully supported by law," she said.
The three plaintiffs characterized the rule as the Bush administration's last-ditch action against abortion and reproductive health to be implemented the day before President-elect Barack Obama takes office.
"This is an unconstitutional, last-minute rule that will wipe out women's health-care rights," Mr. Blumenthal said. "This is a ticking time bomb that will go off at the inauguration and blow out state's rights."
California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island have joined the Connecticut lawsuit. Pennsylvania has not joined the suit, but Gov. Ed Rendell said Jan. 6 that the rule "could have serious, detrimental impacts on patient care and women's reproductive rights."
"If a woman is raped or is the victim of sexual assault, this regulation allows health-care workers to victimize her again by denying treatment," he said.
First Published January 16, 2009 12:00 am
