10 August 2008

HHS Secretary Issues Non-Denial Denial

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt has denied that a controversial draft regulation would redefine common birth control methods as abortion and protect the rights of doctors and other health-care workers who refuse to provide them.


From The Washington Post, citing Leavitt's official blog.

The trouble is that the post in question does exactly what the critics of the proposed regulation have said it does, which is to allow pharmacists and physicians to impose their own moral beliefs upon their customers and patients respectively, contrary to the beliefs of the patients who are actually receiving medical assistance.

Someone commenting on the post accurately sums up the issue:

The proper policy should actually be the opposite- that if health care workers refuse to do their job due to personal judgments about their patient's legal and legitimate medical needs, they should be encouraged to find other work.


There is nothing wrong with being a conscientious objector. If you oppose war, refuse to become a soldier. If you oppose contraceptives or psychiatric drugs, refuse to become a pharmacist.

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