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For Immediate Release: Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Contact: Ranit Schmelzer or Adrienne Ammerman, 202-588-5180
Immediate Action Needed to Reverse Dangerous Midnight Regulation
(Washington, DC) The National Women’s Law Center applauds the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law of the House Judiciary Committee for holding a hearing today on the Bush Administration’s “midnight regulations.”
“It is imperative that the Bush Administration’s last minute attempts to diminish women’s rights and health be reversed,” stated Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center. The National Women’s Law Center is particularly concerned about a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regulation, which went into effect on January 20, 2009, that significantly limits patients’ access to health care and even to basic information about their health care options.
An examination of the process shows that the Bush Administration hastily and recklessly adopted the HHS rule. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reviewed a draft of the proposed rule in only hours, even though the process normally takes weeks or months. Neither HHS nor OMB undertook coordination with other federal agencies before the new rule was issued, in violation of Executive Order 12866.
As a result of this violation, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency charged with enforcing federal law governing discrimination in the workplace, informed HHS of its serious concerns that the rule was unnecessary and confusing in light of the EEOC existing policies during the public comment period, instead of long before the proposed rule was ever published. HHS also neglected to consult with state officials, in apparent violation of Executive Order 13132. Attorneys general from seven states are now suing to block the rule because it impedes enforcement of their own state laws protecting women’s access to contraception.
The HHS rule, now in effect, undermines patients’ access to vital health care services and information, and poses especially grave risks to women’s health and lives. It broadens existing laws to allow doctors, nurses, insurance plans, hospitals—and nearly any other employee in a federally-funded health care setting—to limit information on and access to the entire range of health care services, including birth control, treatments for infertility, depression, drug addiction, HIV/AIDS, and more.
“Not only is the HHS rule bad for women’s health, but it is also bad in the process that was followed,” Greenberger stated. “We urge the President to take immediate steps to reverse this dangerous rule.”
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