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Help protect women's health.

In the waning days of his presidency, George W. Bush moved to undermine the ability of American women to get basic reproductive health services, including birth control and information about abortion.

Late last week, President Obama acted to rescind Bush’s Heath Care Denial Rule. The 30-day public comment period on the Obama proposal starts on March 10. Now, the ACLU needs your help again to mobilize people all across the nation for a dramatic show of support.

Send your public comments to the Department of Health and Human Services in support of rescinding the Health Care Denial Rule. Or, read more first.

Rescission Proposal

I am writing to urge you to completely rescind the Health Care Denial Rule. 

This rule, finalized in the waning days of the Bush presidency, undermines the ability of American women to get basic reproductive health services, including birth control and information about abortion.  I welcome your proposal to rescind it.
 
The regulations appear to expand the ability of institutions and individuals to deny women access to birth control and to permit individuals to refuse to provide information and counseling about basic health care services.  Additionally, they appear to permit health care institutions to ignore other laws that guarantee access to critical reproductive health services. 

Moreover, the regulations are unnecessary.  For years, federal law has carefully balanced protections for individual religious liberty and patients' access to reproductive health care.  But the Bush regulations take patients' health needs out of the equation.  I urge you to restore this important balance and protect access to basic care for the millions of Americans who depend on federally funded health care services.

I understand that when the Bush administration first proposed the rule, HHS received more than 200,000 comments; the overwhelming majority of which opposed the rule, including comments from major medical associations such as the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, women's health organizations, members of Congress, state governors and attorneys general, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, religious advocates, and the general public.  It is time to listen to the public opposition and rescind this dangerous rule.
 
According to researchers at the Guttmacher Institute -- a nonprofit think tank on sexual and reproductive health -- without the contraceptive services provided at publicly funded clinics, there would be 46 percent more unintended pregnancies (1.4 million more) annually in the United States than currently occur.
 
At a time when more and more Americans are either uninsured or struggling with the soaring costs of health care, the federal government should be expanding access to important health services, not interfering in programs that have successfully provided services for years.

Thank you for your proposal to rescind the rule, and I encourage you to quickly follow through with a complete rescission.

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