WASHINGTON — AAUW opposes a new Department of Health and Human Services regulation, finalized today as the latest in a series of last-minute regulations issued by the Bush administration.
"The Bush administration has issued another 11th hour rule that will make it harder for women to balance work and family," said AAUW Executive Director Linda D. Hallman, CAE. "From restricting the ability of women to take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act to blocking access to essential family planning services, the administration's last-minute regulations are a giant lump of coal this holiday season."
The new HHS regulation will severely limit women's access to reproductive health and family planning services, including some of the most common forms of birth control. The rule unnecessarily expands existing policies that allow health care employees to refuse to provide any service that is in any way contrary to their personal beliefs — so-called conscience clauses. The new rule allows workers to refuse to provide such services, information, and referrals without any consideration for patients' access to appropriate care and full information.
"There is an extensive body of laws, regulations, and court precedent that currently balances the religious rights of workers with the practical needs of employers, all while ensuring a patient's access to reproductive health care," said Lisa M. Maatz, AAUW director of public policy and government relations. "This delicate balance, which is vital to providing critical health care services including family planning, is destroyed by the new rule."
The problematic HHS rule comes on the heels of a regulation published just last month that weakens the protections afforded by the Family and Medical Leave Act, making it more difficult for most workers to take job-protected leave and impinging on their privacy in the process.
"AAUW is urging both the president-elect and the new Congress to take a hard look at all the midnight regulations issued by the outgoing administration, and we're confident that we can effectively reverse this latest direction in the damaging course laid by President Bush," said Hallman.
AAUW submitted comments urging the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to improve the reproductive health and safety of all women and girls rather than limit it. In addition, thousands of AAUW members contacted the Bush administration and urged them not to finalize the harmful regulation. Similar comments were submitted to the Department of Labor regarding the FMLA rules.
