Polling the Uterus
By Kay Steiger - Jul 16th, 2008 at 12:37 pmYesterday the Bush administration announced a proposed regulation change (pdf) in the Health and Human Services department. The proposed change, which can only be interpreted as a giant “fuck you” to women everywhere, has two parts: a “non-discrimination” component and an attempt to redefine life as beginning at conception. Both of these things, if enacted, spell very bad news for women’s health everywhere.
The policy change would force any organization that receives federal health funding to protect the “religious liberties” of its employees, including nurses, doctors, and other health care professionals. It would prevent an institution from firing someone for refusing to treat a patient based on their religious beliefs, which, of course, would mainly apply to abortion and the distribution of birth control. Interestingly enough, as Ann at Feministing pointed out, the new “non-discrimination” policy still doesn’t protect someone from getting fired for his or her sexual orientation or gender representation.
The redefinition of pregnancy beginning at conception is significant. As Cristina Page said in RH Reality Check,
[The proposed regulation] now claims that pregnancy begins at some biologically unknowable moment (there’s no test to determine if a woman’s egg has been fertilized). Under these new standards there would be no way for a woman to prove she’s not pregnant. Thus, any woman could be denied contraception under HHS’ new science.
The reason behind this proposed change in the definition of pregnancy, they said, is popular opinion. That’s right: They took a poll to make decisions about a woman’s uterus. Perhaps our new policy to take polls on any medical procedure or medication to see what the public thinks before allowing anyone to get health care. The proposal reads:
A 2001 Zogby International American Values poll revealed that 49% of Americans believe that human life begins at conception. Presumably many who hold this belief think that any action that destroys human life after conception is the termination of a pregnancy, and so would be included in their definition of the term “abortion.”
Zogby is notorious for tailoring its polls to the desirable outcome of their clients. It’s doubtful that a poll labeled “American Values” was commissioned by a scientific group.
Luckily, the HHS “welcomes comments” on any of its policies:
Division of Policy and Assurances
Office for Human Research Protections
1101 Wootton Parkway
Suite 200
Rockville, MD 20852
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