Obama administration replaces controversial 'conscience' regulation for health-care workers

[Tx4obama]

Source: The Washington Post

The Obama administration rescinded most of a federal regulation Friday designed to protect health workers who refuse to provide care they find objectionable on personal or religious grounds.

The Health and Human Services Department eliminated nearly the entire rule put into effect by the administration of President George W. Bush during his final days in office that was widely interpreted as allowing such workers to opt out of a broad range of medical services, such as providing the emergency contraceptive Plan B, treating gay men and lesbians and prescribing birth control to single women.

Calling the Bush-era rule "unclear and potentially overbroad in scope," the new, much narrower version essentially leaves in place only long-standing federal protections for workers who object to performing abortions or sterilizations. It also retains the Bush rule's formal process for workers to file complaints.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/18/AR2011021803251.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert

[tpsbmam]

1. Nice to see something good! Good going, Mr. President. K&R nt

[Hello_Kitty]

2. Good!

[Demeter]

3. And it only took two years

At this rate, we'll undo the worst Reaganisms in.....65 years!

[Citizen Worker]

5. The rule change indicates a campaign gearing up for re-election.

[marasinghe]

13. true. but i'm hoping against logic, that the Nile fever has infected him, peripherally @ least. n/t

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[pacalo]

6. The Bush law was so vague that healthcare workers were using it to avoid

providing the emergency Plan B contraceptive, treating gay patients, dispensing birth-control pills & devices, honoring patients' end-of-life wishes, infertility treatments, & possibly a long range of scientific research.

Kept in place was healthcare workers' ability to opt out of assisting in abortion & sterilization procedures.

Thank you, Obama. :thumbsup:

[truedelphi]

7. A woman doctor who is "guided by God's principles"

Refused me pain meds.

Needless to say, I switched doctors. She did think her decision to put me on a very powerful anti depressant was okay - better than the pain pills I was using, according to her conscience.

Religion and God have their place. That place is in a church, not in a medical clinic or hospital.

[pacalo]

11. She sure doesn't belong in the medical profession, does she? What will these wackos do now?

[Demeter]

15. Amen! (If you will pardon the expression)

[old mark]

8. K&R- Is there a Democrat in there after all? ... It really sucks when something like this seems

really progressive for a Democratic Administration led by the man billed as "the most dangerous liberal in Congress" before his election, but at least it is going in the right direction. Maybe the second term will be REALLY progressive...


mark

[frylock]

9. praise where praise is due..

good move.

[Vidar]

10. Maybe the man's actually a vertabrate.

[Arkana]

12. There was a rule that protected religious zealots from treating people

they deemed "unclean"?

Jesus fuck, we were getting more screwed than I thought in the Bush years.

[marasinghe]

14. yep. from the orthodox old testament school of theology.

the Jesus guy's take on the other hand, if the tales be true, was about ministering to the sick. perhaps he was rebelling against his Father.

[No Elephants]

16. What about emergencies, when a pregnant woman is in danger?