New Bush Abortion Regs Attack Women's Rights

President Bush is rushing to implement new regulations that will restrict women's access to healthcare on his way out of town, and the reality-based community is not too happy about it. From NY Times:

The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their "religious beliefs or moral convictions."

This is on top of protections that already exist, and have been working just fine:

Under the Civil Rights Act, an employer must make reasonable accommodations for an employee's religious practices, unless the employer can show that doing so would cause "undue hardship on the conduct of its business."

The law would make it harder for women to get access to emergency contraception and abortion, but curiously, doesn't seem to cover the dispensation of Viagra to unmarried men.

The rule faces stiff opposition from every quarter, including the American Medical Association. I don't know about you, but if it's my health on the line, I'll take the AMA over W any day of the week.

This is really simple, folks. If you want a job that doesn't interfere with your practice of your own brand of voodoo, become a witch doctor. Or a chiropractor. The rest of you, try doing what your patient needs you to do. That's what we pay you for.

Did Tommy convince you that the new rules are a bad idea? Let us know.

Read Mark's alternate take on the subject.