Heather Corinna of the sex-ed site Scarleteen, and others, remind us that
September 25th is the last day to submit public comment on the proposed HHS regulations which are not only superfluous, but more importantly, would further limit access to reproductive healthcare (and other healthcare) services in the U.S., particularly for those who already have the greatest limitations to care, like teens.
It’s so important to have public comment on this, so if you have not done so yet, take a few minutes tonight and be sure to get something in.
- *
I am writing to urge you to stop efforts to block women’s access to basic reproductive health services.
I understand that the proposed regulations that the Department of Health and Human Services released on August 21, 2008 expand existing law to allow more health care providers and institutions to refuse to provide needed care.
As written, the regulations could allow institutions and individuals — based on religious beliefs — to deny women access to birth control and permit individuals to refuse to provide information and counseling about basic heath care services. Moreover, they expand existing laws by permitting a wider range of health care professionals to refuse to provide even referrals for abortion services.
For those of us working in healthcare, the onus is on us to choose a clinic or an area of practice where we know we want to provide the healthcare services offered to clients, and which we feel is in alignment with our personal values or religious beliefs. It should not be on those seeking needed health services. It is our responsibility — and we have the greater agency as as workers — to seek out the work we want, and leave the work we do not want, or do not feel we can live with, to those who are supportive and can honor any given job description. It is also our responsibility to take a job earnestly, not disingenuously. In healthcare, we have an extra responsibility, which is to put our clients needs and their physical health — not our ideas about their spiritual health — ahead of our own, and to care for them in the way which is best for them, objectively, rather than in the ways we feel would be best for us, or feel our religion would mandate.
It’s a pretty big deal and your comments (pro or, I guess, con) can make a big difference. The reproductive-health website passes along a link to an online comments form at Physicans for Reproductive Choice and Health. You can write your own comments or just use the template letter they provide. I’ve added mine, please consider adding yours.
Thank you!
figleaf
Submitted by 2412 (not verified) on Thu, 2008-09-25 09:14.
Thanks for this. Personally, I think if a pharmacist refuses to provide medication a client needs, she should be fired, and I suppose a doctor is free to be anti-choice, but in that case she can't be an OBGYN unless she's willing to suck it up and perform abortions regardless of her own beliefs. BECAUSE THAT'S REQUIRED OF THE JOB.
Submitted by 2412 (not verified) on Thu, 2008-09-25 12:56.
It's weird how the idea of healthcare practitioners working on "conscience" only applies to this narrow area. No one's talking about the--much more significant to most healthcare workers, I'd bet--issue of being told by a family to "do everything" for someone who's hopeless and suffering, even if it means mechanically forcing them to live while their body rots irretrievably away. If you're going to allow healthcare workers to override patient wishes with their own conscience (not that I think this is a good idea, I'm just saying), that's where any nurse or doctor would tell you to start.