Score One for Patients: HHS Refusal Regulation Eliminated (In Part)

We're pleased to report that on Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services rescinded most of the bad Bush Administration "midnight" regulation on health care provider "conscience." For those of you who have forgotten, the Bush regulation supposedly interpreted three existing laws that allow individuals and entities to refuse abortion services.But it went much further than existing law, giving expansive rights to refuse to provide health care services and information, without regard to the impact on patients.It also caused serious confusion about how it interacted with existing laws that protect patients, like emergency requirements.So we made a big deal out the Bush Administration regulation when it was first proposed and again when it was finalized in 2008.Call us crazy, but we just didn't think a woman with cervical cancer should be denied information about the option to extract and freeze her eggs before her cancer treatment just because her health care provider opposed infertility treatment.

We took it as a positive sign when the Obama Administration proposed—just two months into office—that the rule be rescinded.The Obama Administration took final action on Friday, rescinding almost all of the Bush Administration rule, keeping only a mechanism by which to enforce the underlying laws.

The new rule finalized Friday eliminates the potential for harm to patients by getting rid of the overly broad interpretations included in the Bush rule and clarifying how the federal refusal laws interact with other laws that protect patient access to care.For more information on how, read our factsheet. Here are just a few highlights:

• The new rule makes it clear that "abortion" does not include contraception, so refusing health care providers cannot rely on the federal abortion refusal laws to jeopardize patient access to birth control.
• It ensures that women experiencing pregnancy complications will not be refused treatment in emergencies.
• It prevents people from being denied treatment because of who they are or because they engaged in behavior the provider thinks is inappropriate.

So score one for patients and for women's health.Unfortunately, the final tally on whether women's reproductive health will remain undamaged this year is not yet in–we need to stop the unprecedented attacks on women's health and reproductive rights currently moving through Congress.