Cops Out of Our Bedrooms, Out of Our Bodies!

White House Defines Contraception as Abortion
07/16/08
By Allison Stevens
Washington Bureau Chief
Federal funding for family planning clinics could dry up under a proposal from the Bush administration. Pro-choice advocates attacked the proposal as an assault on women's health and for expanding the definition of abortion to include birth control.
WASHINGTON (WOMENSENEWS)--Reproductive rights advocates issued a collective condemnation Tuesday of a draft proposal by the Bush administration to set new restrictions on domestic family planning programs.
Under the draft proposal, federally funded hospitals and clinics that provide family planning services would be required to promise in writing that they will turn a blind eye to health care providers' views on abortion and certain kinds of birth control, such as emergency contraception.
The proposed rule defines abortion as "any of the various procedures--including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action--that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation."
Organizations that do not comply would forfeit financial aid distributed by the Department of Health and Human Services.
If implemented, the regulations could make it more difficult for many to access information about abortion and birth control and obtain supplies and services, said Mary Jane Gallagher, president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association in Washington, D.C. The regulation could also undermine state laws ensuring access to birth control, she said. And it would redefine abortion so that it includes certain kinds of birth control methods, setting a dangerous precedent. [...]
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3672