Bush's Prescription for Bad Health Care

We need your help today — and over the next few weeks — to fight back. Thank you in advance for standing with us during this critical time.

For the past month, we have been aware that the Bush administration was planning to release a rule that would limit the rights of patients to receive complete and accurate reproductive health information and services. With your help, we did all we could to stop the president from going through with the threat to release the new rule. But Bush was intent on delivering this "gift" to his extreme anti-choice supporters before he left office. Today was their lucky day.

You can bet that anti-choice activists are thrilled that President Bush made good on his promise to them. This rule will allow them to receive federal funds for so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" — anti-choice facilities whose purpose is to deceive and dissuade women from accessing birth control and abortion information and services. Click here to help us fight back.

A woman’s ability to manage her own health care is being compromised by politics and ideology. The new regulation complicates rather than clarifies the law. It lets health care providers define abortion, which could threaten access to birth control and broader reproductive health care. This is just one more example of how the Bush administration puts politics in the exam room.

We've got a fight on our hands — and it's a big one. We have 30 days to dispute the rule with everything we've got. That includes you. It is during crises like the one happening today when your support for Planned Parenthood and the people we serve is most needed. We need your emergency contribution.  We're launching a massive campaign immediately. Click here to help.

When more and more families are uninsured and have difficulty accessing health care at all, implementing a rule that will limit access to health services is utterly perplexing. The Bush administration's outrageous actions never cease to amaze us, but this one is beyond belief. It will hurt the women who most need help at a time when they are most vulnerable. It's unconscionable, and it is wrong. And, once again, it's our job to stop it.

Thank you for your help today and during the next few weeks.

Learn More

Press Statements & News Releases

• Planned Parenthood Federation of America Statement in Response to the New HHS Regulation Impacting Women's Health (8/21/2008)
• Planned Parenthood: HHS Secretary Leavitt Blogs, but Misses the Point (8/08/2008)
• Planned Parenthood joins 56 other organizations in opposing draft HHS rule (07/22/2008)
• Planned Parenthood Joins Senator Hillary Clinton and Congresswoman Nita Lowey In Criticizing Bush Administration Plan on Women’s Health (07/18/2008) 
• Planned Parenthood: Proposed HHS Rule Would Compromise Women's Health Care (7/15/2008)

Already, the public has reacted strongly in opposition to a previous similar draft HHS rule.  Members from professional community groups across the country drafted letters urging HHS Secretary Leavitt to reject that rule.  These groups include

Medical Professionals

• Letter from a coalition of medical, public health, religious, advocacy, and research groups
• Letter from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
• Letter from the American Medical Association
• Letter from the medical community and professional groups

Clergy

• Clergy Advisory Board Statement in Opposition to Proposed HHS Rule
• Letter from clergy members and religious groups

Members of Congress

• Letter from members of the United States Senate
• Letter from members of the United States House of Representatives 
• Follow-up letter from members of the United States House of Representatives
• Letter from Republican members of Congress

Newspapers across the country also ran editorials and columns speaking out against the previous draft rule.

• ABC News.com, Women's Health Debate Reaches Boiling Point
• Ashbury Park Press, Plan redefines birth control as form of abortion
• Associated Press, HHS: Doctors can refuse to provide abortions
• Boston Globe, A new attack on birth control
• Chicago Sun-Times, Stealth attack on women's rights exposed
• Florida Today, Rights at risk: Shelve arrogant White House push to redefine birth control as abortion
• Hartford Courant editorial: Put Patients First
• The Hill.com, Clinton, Murray slam Bush official on abortion proposal
• The Houston Chronicle, Redefining Abortion
• Minneapolis Star Tribune, Playing politics with women's health care
• The Oregonian, An Affront to Women and Families
• Roanoke Times, Don't let Bush restrict access to birth control
• RH Reality Check, Planned Parenthood, MoveOn Deliver 325,000 Signatures to HHS to Preserve Contraception Access
• San Jose Mercury News, Editorial: Defeat Bush's last stand against abortion
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Birth Control: They’re at it again
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Family Planning: Striking Plan
• Seattle Times, An anti-abortion ploy
• Waco Tribune-Herald, Shell game on women's health
• Wall Street Journal, Rules Let Health Workers Deny Abortions
• Washington Post, Birth Control Fears Addressed
• Washington Post, Protections Set for Antiabortion Health Workers