Conscience clause and relaxed environmental regs among Bush's lame-duck rulings

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=conscience-clause-and-relaxed-envir-2008-12-19

Dec 19, 2008 03:35 PM in Society & Policy

Conscience clause and relaxed environmental regs among Bush's lame-duck rulings

Jordan Lite

Reproductive health and enviro activists are fuming over two http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=bush-moves-may-endanger-endangered-2008-11-20">more last-minute rule changes by the outgoing Bush administration: a new reg that allows heathcare workers to nix treatments to which they have moral objections, and another one that bars regulators from taking into consideration a power company's climate-change-causing greenhouse gas emissions when applying for a license to build new http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=can-coal-and-clean-air-coexist-china">coal-fired plants.

Both rules are set take effect a month from now – just hours before President Bush vacates the White House and President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in to office on Jan. 20.

The so-called “right of conscience” rule allows workers at more than 584,000 U.S. medical facilities that receive federal funding to refuse to provide patient care that involves procedures with which they disagree. Critics say the decision will mostly affect the provision of reproductive-health services to women, including abortion, birth control and emergency contraception. They also say it could complicate states’ ability to enforce laws requiring hospitals to offer those treatments, especially the morning-after pill for rape victims.

"In just a matter of months, the Bush administration has undone three decades of federal protections for both medical professionals and their patients," Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. "It replaced them with a policy that seriously risks the health of millions of women, then tried to pass it off as benevolent."

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[madeline_con]

1. The Bush Legacy makes me sick, and I can be refused treatment for it?