1/5/2009 Sign Our Petition to Stop the HHS Regulations Today By David Castillo
Family PlanIt is back from its winter break and ready to get to work in 2009. The President delivered his final holiday gift to low-income and uninsured families right before Christmas in the form of anti-contraception regulations that will allow health care providers to deny women and men vital health care services.
NFPRHA is working with a large coalition to combat these unnecessary and harmful rules and we need your support. There are lots of things you can do to help and you can start by signing the petition we will send to decision makers in Washington, DC. These regulations garnered 250,000+ comments during the mandated comment period so we know the opposition is out there.
Our petition is only one way to help. Click here to find out the myriad other ways to join the fight. The administration has been waiting to deliver this final blow to the reproductive health community and it is imperative that everyone who values to health care speak out against Bush's audacious move.
So, sign our petition and email it to your friends. Blog about the petition or tweet it or add it to your facebook profile. With your help key leaders in Washington will hear the call to put a stop to these regulations.
12/23/2008 Bush's Holiday Gift to Families? Protected Discrimination. By Mary Jane Gallagher
The Bush administration's newly released anti-contraception regulations could harm millions of American families. These regulations will limit access to contraception to low-income and uninsured women and men and it will create new hurdles for family planning service providers across the country.
Federal law has long provided protection for individuals who have religious or moral objections to providing any health care service. The new rule issued by the Bush administration takes patients' needs out of the equation and creates a broad new right for individuals and institutions to refuse provide health care services, including basic health care such as contraception, information, counseling and referrals.
Many of us never had any doubts that President Bush and his loyalists were out of touch with Americans and this rule just further exemplifies that reality. Take, for example, one of the first few lines in the regulation which the Administration used to justify its need: It is one of the reasons for the common practice of patients meeting with several health care providers in order to find the one in whom they are most confident about entrusting their care.
While many people with health insurance certainly have the luxury of seeking out the right provider, the stark reality is that if you are a low income or uninsured person you don't have the time or money to seek out health care provider options.
The rule also does not provide any guidance or recourse for individuals who are refused service or referrals. I guess those in the most need don't matter to the outgoing administration.
Beyond these concerns, the rule also threatens dozens of state laws that have been put into place to protect patients. It seems clear that HHS and President Bush did not think this law through nor did they consider the countless problems it would create. The administration obviously prioritized politics over the real need for sound health care laws. I find this to be totally unacceptable and together with our family planners we will cover the waterfront to ensure these rules are eliminated.
We will fight back this audacious move by the Bush administration. Family PlanIt previously outlined several of our options available to rescind today's ruling. In a country with such significant health care disparities, we cannot afford to limit access to care for those who are most at risk--low-income, uninsured patients that are served by a wide safety-net of health care providers.
12/18/2008 FINAL HHS RULES ISSUED By David Castillo
NFPRHA first got word of these harmful anti-contraception HHS rules this past summer.
Since then, the reproductive health community has been preparing for the day the administration would finally issue them and that day has arrived.
Rest assured that NFPRHA and our family planners will do all we can to fight this unnecessary regulation. We've been planning for this day for months and as soon as more information unfolds, Family PlanIt will relay that to you all.
For now, read the final rule here and check out all the news coverage on NFPRHA's special HHS regs page.
12/17/2008 Raise Your Voice to Lift the Global Gag Rule By David Castillo
There are several issues that those in the reproductive health care want President-elect Obama to address when he gets into office, not the least of which are those pesky anti-contraception HHS regulations which look to be finally issued later this week. It's become increasingly clear, however, that not everything can be addressed at once. The transition team has become innundated with requests and policy papers and, unfortunately, some are going to have to accept compromise.
There is one thing the incoming president can do during his first 100 days that will be fairly easy to do and which would mitigate some of the criticism that is sure to be lobbed at the new administration for not acting quickly enough. That move would be to lift the "Mexico City Policy" or the global gag rule.
This terrible order, which the President signed during his first few hours in office, bars any organization that receives U.S. funding from providing or even talking about abortion. There is so much more than abortion that this policy affects. We're talking about a policy that precludes organizations from funding to provide condoms, prenatal care for mothers-to-be and health care for children. We're talking about people's lives.
Our friends over at engenderhealth.org have created a snazzy video about the global gag rule and they're urging people to sign a petition, which will be delivered to President-elect Obama asking for his pledge to lift the global gag rule during his first 100 days in office. We think you should sign it, too.
Check out their video (the first of 5) after the jump and visit their web site to sign the petition today.
12/11/2008 Bush's Stroll the Woods of Reproductive Health Seems to be Taking Extra Long By Malcolm Harris
Although the nation seems to be heading toward the light in terms of reproductive rights, we have to remember that the Bush years aren't behind us yet.
The administration is still pushing so-called conscience protections that would deny women safe and legal reproductive health care through the federal bureaucracy.
Op-Ed boards and health advocates nationwide have decried this unnecessary and harmful proposed rule, yet the Bush administration still seems to want to make it law before the clock runs out. While the rest of the nation seems to have forged a hard-fought consensus about the role of family planning in preventing a host of problems, some extremists are still seeking to derail the progress we've made.
Thankfully Senators Murray and Clinton (before she announced her move to State) have announced their intention to block the new rule from becoming law.
The moral of the story is: we're not out of the woods yet.
