Washington, DC -- Today's regulation issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under the guise of 'protecting' the conscience of health care providers, is yet another reminder of the outgoing administration's implicit contempt for women's right to accurate and complete reproductive health information and legal medical procedures.

All patients, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, race, religion, or sexual orientation, expect that their physicians will give them honest, complete and unbiased information based on their specific health situations. This new HHS regulation places patients' rights directly behind the rights of ideologically-driven physicians and anyone else directly or indirectly involved in their health care. As has been acknowledged by HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, current law, dating back 30 years, already protects physicians and health care providers who refuse to provide abortions and sterilizations based on religious or moral beliefs. Indeed, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has corroborated that the rule is unnecessary to protect employees and has the potential to create confusion.

Nearly every relevant, national medical association has urged Secretary Leavitt to abandon this ill-conceived policy change. Nonetheless, ideology rules the day once again in this administration. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists will respectfully request that President-Elect Barack Obama rescind this regulation as expeditiously as possible upon taking office in January.

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