Bush Administration Trying To Redefine Contraception As Abortion

The Gavel:

The New York Times reports that the Bush Administration's Department of Health and Human Services is drafting a rule that would place new restrictions on domestic family planning programs. While current law allows health care providers and professionals to refuse to provide abortions based on their religious beliefs, this provision would threaten the funding of organizations and health facilities if they do not hire people who would refuse to provide birth control and defines abortion so broadly that it would include many types of birth control, including oral contraception.

Read the whole story: The Gavel

Comments

[MissingAmerica]

My loathing and contempt for this man is something I never thought I would feel for anyone, let alone the President of my country. Bush is a disgrace to this country and a disgrace to humanity. If ever a man could be considered a monster, it is he..

[Bettysdad]

I hope all those PUMAs and Hillraisers meeting with McCains people learn about this.

Yeah, deny American women access to contraception because you're pissed Hillary isn't the nominee.

[Cynth]

PUMA = Punishment Under McCain Administration

[JackND]

They don't care.

When their daughters are seeking out dangerous, illegal abortions, they'll be taught to sooth their mind by reciting a nursery rhyme their Hillarite mothers taught them called "At least Obama wasn't elected President".

[django707]

If you're thinking about having sex, but then decide not to, is that an abortion?

[esgabel]

Thumbs w-a-y up!!!!!

[LorettaSingbiel]

Every time a man takes a cold shower ...

[transendentilist]

I have never met a woman or young woman that "wants," an abortion. But sometimes circumstances require it. For the good of the mother and to spare the child a life of sickness and poverty, not to mention emotional problems out the ying-yang. These neo-conservatives have to go. America will always be in peril with these "jokers," in our country.

[StephenBarry]

Bingo my friend !!! This is lunacy.

[BigFootJesus]

Hmmm...Obv­iously masturbation must be murder (for men).

[KOisGod]

More good christian soldiers needed for the current and upcoming oil wars.

Go forward and multiply !

[mergina]

Yes. Soon, like ancient Rome, women breeders will be given some compensation for producing a male that can be used to send off to war. What could that be for a woman breeder? A new refrigerator? Washer? Drier? A one year supply of diapers?

[Pragman]

If gas prices, the Iraq war, the mortgage crisis, and global warming aren't enough problems, Republicans have to have a problem with contraceptives, even though they're going to increase the number of out-of-wedlock births.

[erathwomen]

But that's ok 'cos they can all live on welfare!

Oh wait......

;)

[keclxivq]

With this logic we can now assume, every time a man or woman goes to pee they are possibly aborting a baby. We must remember it takes two so there is no blaming this on women alone.
When all those skull and bones boys are skull and boning each other they are actually aborting babies. I knew all along they were up to no good.

[LorettaSingbiel]

"this provision would threaten the funding... "

I am woman...he­ar me roar!
On election day...I'll settle the score!
BUSH=MCCAIN will threaten no more
when OBAMA shows them the door
and ENDS their hundred years' war!

[watchingthings]

Nice.....a­nd lets hope we see their type no more....

[Gary47]

Let's create artwork - a big over-sized uterine wall standing tall with little fertilized eggs sliding down the face of it unable to attach. Then, bunches of little bush-clone people running around at the base shaking sticks at the uterine wall shouting "murderer, murderer, murderer".­..

True insanity is finding it's perfect expression in the bush administration.

[BushBites]

Why don't reporters ask McCain what he thinks of this?

Too busy fetching his donuts?

[indypete]

Let's push it back a bit further and include vasectomies, condoms and fellatio. Fix it so a 15-year-old kid can't spank the puppy without risking jail time.

Sheesh.

[LorettaSingbiel]

Would tubal-ligations be outlawed?

[mergina]

Every male who masturbates and shoots his valuable future soldier producing sperm anywhere but into a fertile egg, should be sent to Iraq IMMEDIATELY.

[4wehttam]

So what, do you now try to impose a law that only constitutes abstinence as the only LEGAL form of contracept­ion???!!!!

OMG! These people have completely lost their minds. What's next, will we go back to same race marriage again? Or perhaps being jailed for giving birth out of wedlock???!!!

[Blurp]

Yes, they HAVE completely lost their minds.

[1differentdrummer]

Come on, George and Laura went to their marriage bed virgins, didn't they? Oh, you mean there's a chance they didn't? Never mind.

[ShakeYourComplacency]

Same race marriage won't return, but arranged marriages and supposedly being a virgin until you're married sure is. There's even that tv show where the girl is so incompetent that her parents have to pick out her date for her. The clock is turning back.

[Gary47]

"Bush Administration Trying To Redefine Contraception As Abortion"

Well, they've already defined up as down, right as wrong, intelligence as stupidity, leadership as a pat on the back. What the hell, contraception as abortion, that's a piece of cake for this crew.

[kajolo]

This is partly from information I received from Planned Parenthood about this Bush "rule" change.

Right now, anti-choice groups run so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" all around the country -- often very close to Planned Parenthood affiliate health centers. Their facilities look like health centers, but in reality they are run by anti-choice zealots who deliver only the reproductive health care options that fit their reactionary right-wing agenda. No birth control, no abortion -- and no real choice for women and families who need it.

I have seen first-hand the terrifying effect that these places have on women. They claim to be helping pregnant women with their health care choices, but they do not offer true help. They intimidate women at their most vulnerable times with violent, misleading anti-abortion propaganda films. The "clinic" workers tell them they must sit through these "introductory" films before they can receive any "advice or care". The women often leave confused and in tears…and then the abusers congratulate themselves.

If Bush has his way, the fake clinics will receive a MASSIVE influx of our tax dollars to expand their deceptive operations and attract thousands of women who think they'll be getting medical care but instead will receive a large dose of anti-choice theology. This inhumane treatment of women that are simply in search of advice about reproductive options is NOT worthy of our tax $$. These so-called "clinics" are fakes and are only worthy of criminal prosecution!

[zizyphus]

All too true. I have also seen first-hand how they operate.

They should be closed down. They are staffed by sadistic religious fanatics who get all worked up when a pregnant girl comes in and they can show her abortion photos.

They only show them the aborted fetuses, not photos of the poor women who died in back alleys and motel rooms when abortion was illegal. Perhaps in their vengeful, old testament minds, a woman who needs an abortion deserves to die in a back alley.

[Siren]

HHS is taking public comment on this now. Go to the Department of Health and Human Services website and leave them your comment on this matter. This proposal is a rule change, not legislation subject to a vote. They are arbitrarily trying to change the definition of contraception as an abortion to further the far right religious agenda at the expense of every woman in America. A Roe v Wade attack by rule change within HHS as opposed to the SCOTUS.

[clevelandchick]

Standard oral contraception prevents OVULATION! No egg is produced to be fertilized. That's why when you are on the pill you have really light or non-existent periods. No ovulation means that no egg is released from the ovaries for a sperm to fertilize which means no need for the uterine wall to build up anything to nourish an egg which means no period.

The morning after pill "can" prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg but in reality if it's not your time of the month and no egg has been released it really prevents nothing. It's a precaution.

I'm so tired of the misconceptions on contraception. Repeat after me, the pill prevents ovulation. Please for God's sake remember that one fact.

[joyf1]

Right! But remember the pharmacist in Plano, Texas? He refused to fill prescriptions for birth control pills because he thought it "killed a human being". Scary since this guy is supposed to be educated!!!!!

[BobSF94117]

So, the pill is, in a sense, keeping the egg in prison forever, sort of like an enemy combatant? (I'm just trying to put this in GOP terminology)

[Siren]

The "Definitions" section of the HHS proposal states,

Abortion: An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy. There
are two commonly held views on the question of when a pregnancy
begins. Some consider a pregnancy to begin at conception (that is, the
fertilization of the egg by the sperm), while others consider it to
begin with implantation (when the embryo implants in the lining of the
uterus). A 2001 Zogby International American Values poll revealed that
49% of Americans believe that human life begins at conception.
Presumably many who hold this belief think that any action that
destroys human life after conception is the termination of a pregnancy,
and so would be included in their definition of the term "abortion.­"
Those who believe pregnancy begins at implantation believe the term
"abortion" only includes the destruction of a human being after it has
implanted in the lining of the uterus.
The proposal continues,

Both definitions of pregnancy
inform medical practice. Some medical authorities, like the American
Medical Association and the British Medical Association, have defined
the term "established pregnancy" as occurring after implantation. Other
medical authorities present different definitions. Stedman's Medical
Dictionary, for example, defines pregnancy as "[t]he state of a female
after conception and until the termination of the gestation.­"
Dorland's Medical Dictionary defines pregnancy, in relevant part, as
"the condition of having a developing embryo or fetus in the body,
after union of an oocyte and spermatozoon.

[Siren]

Up until now, the federal government followed the definition of
pregnancy accepted by the American Medical Association and our nation's
pregnancy experts, the American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists, which is: pregnancy begins at implantation. With this
proposal, however, HHS is dismissing medical experts and opting instead
to accept a definition of pregnancy based on polling data

[Daly]

Wonder if Shrubs daughters use bc; if not he should be a gramps soon.