7 States Sue Over Bush Rule on Health Workers (with religious, moral objections)

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: NYT/AP

Seven states sued the federal government Thursday over a new rule that expands protections for doctors and other health care workers who refuse to participate in abortions and other medical procedures because of religious or moral objections.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed the lawsuit in federal court in Hartford on behalf of the states. They claim the federal rule, issued by the Bush administration last month and set to take effect Tuesday, would trump state laws protecting women's access to birth control, reproductive health services and emergency contraception.

Blumenthal said the regulations ''are flawed and defective'' and would ''unconstitutionally and unconscionably interfere with women's health care rights.'' Blumenthal said the rule ''shrouds the term abortion in new and unnecessary ambiguity'' and encourages medical providers to define it themselves and deny patients contraception, including emergency contraception for rape victims....

***

California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island joined Connecticut in the lawsuit, which seeks a court order blocking the new rule. Planned Parenthood of Federation of America Inc. and National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association said they are filing separate, parallel lawsuits....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/01/15/us/AP-Abortion-Rule-Lawsuits.html

[krabigirl]

1. Love how Bush planned to sneak this in at the last minute. Despicable.

[saigon68]

4. He is an ugly POS who needs to be on his Pig Farm

[Warren DeMontague]

2. Why should this stop with birth control? Hey, if firefighters don't like uptight fundamentalists

they should be able to "opt out" of putting their houses out, right?

You know, gotta protect that all powerful conscience. :eyes:

Don't worry, the 'NOTHING TRUMPS THE RIGHT OF JESUS-DRUNK PHARMACISTS TO LECTURE WOMEN ABOUT THEIR SEX LIVES" crowd will show up to this thread, soon enough. :puke:

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Funny you should say that. There is no legal duty for police or firefighters

to protect citizens from harm. No federal or state law. OTOH, once they embark on a rescue, they have the duty to perform competently.

So your premise could likely withstand challenge.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. My only "Premise" is, that if people -like pharmacists- can't DO THEIR FUCKING JOBS

they should find another one.

That means no Jesus lectures instead of filling pill prescriptions to unmarried women, for instance.

[reggie the dog]

9. fuck the pharmacists that refuse to sell birth control

I would presonally just tell the person to go fuck themselves (they would not think it was bad language, after all I got it from the VP) and then go to another pharmacy. If they didn't want to sell it I would go to another. It would make getting birth control a bit like scoring MDMA......but not impossible.....

[Ian David]

13. I bet those same pharmacists would sell cigarettes to a pregnant woman. n/t

[TrogL]

10. So would a fundamentalist muslim police officer fail to interfere with an honour killing?

Would a paramedic fail to take a rape kit?

[Ian David]

12. Paramedics can refuse calls to treat snakebites at churches. n/t

[reggie the dog]

14. ??? Am I missing something here?

Why would you have a snakebite problem in Churches?

[Ian David]

15. Thou shalt take up serpents...

Woman bitten by snake at church dies
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x5812367

[uppityperson]

6. Good for them, this should not be a law. k&r

[proud progressive]

7. i'm sorry, but good-f..king-riddens to monkey-brains and his post-alcholic 'religion'

[raccoon]

8. K&R. nt

[Ian David]

11. Imagine if an Orthodox Jew working at The Registry of Motor Vehicles...

... wouldn't give a drivers' license to chrisTians because the drive on the sabbath.

[Hekate]

16. Thank God. So Baby Caligua fixed it so his new law would go into effect as Obama takes the oath...

Just when I think Bush can't possibly behave more despicably, he manages to do so. This is like the perfect bookends to his illegitimate reign: on his first day in office, Bush signed the Global Gag Order back into being.

I hope he rots in that Hell he believes in someday. Meanwhile, I am so grateful that 7 states have joined together to sue the hell out of the feds in order to overturn this horrible mysoginistic law.

Hekate

[raccoon]

17. Ever hear of a pharmacist who wouldn't sell Viagra?

Crickets.......

[Donnachaidh]

18. Lawsuits Filed Over Rule That Lets Health Workers Deny Care

Source: Washington Post

Regulation to Protect 'Conscience Rights' Called Too Broad

Seven states and two family-planning groups yesterday asked a federal court to block a controversial new federal regulation that protects health workers who refuse to provide care that they find objectionable.

In three lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, the states and groups sought an immediate court order preventing the regulation from going into effect Tuesday and a permanent decision voiding the rule.

"On the way out, the Bush administration has left a ticking political time bomb that is set to explode literally on the day of the president's inaugural and blow apart women's rights," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who filed one of the suits on behalf of his state, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island. "This midnight rule is a nightmare for hospitals and clinics, as well as women."

Blumenthal's lawsuit challenges the regulation on several grounds, charging that it is too vague and overbroad and conflicts with other federal laws and state laws. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America filed a second suit on behalf of its affiliates, while the American Civil Liberties Union filed sued on behalf of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, which represents many state and county health departments, among other providers.

MORE at the link above --



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/15/AR2009011502059.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

[quidam56]

19. Health care needs a cure

Politicians and Profit Machines come way ahead of people. In East Tennessee, "horrifying" health care is a okay and is perfectly acceptable. http://www.wisecountyissues.com

[Fresh_Start]

20. If health care workers can have an exemption from doing their jobs

why can't the rest of us.

Fast food workers refuse to sell food to obese people
Taxi drivers refuse to carry people who are inebriated
Telephone companies stop allowing access to porn lines
Internet companies refuse consumer ads because people need to consume less.