The Bush administration and all the Fundie wackos he's emboldened may have finally found a way, in one fell swoop to advance their ideology and further restrict abortion, stem cell research, your ability to get contraceptives at your local pharmacy and even research aimed at furthering alternative fertility procedures which would directly impact the LGBT community.
This is all under the guise of a federal proposal to protect certain health-care workers from religious discrimination. The Department of Health and Human Services(HHS), the same entity we are waiting on to lift the last vestiges of the HIV travel ban, is reviewing a drafted regulation that would deny federal funding to any "hospital, clinic, health plan or other entity" that doesn't want to provide care contrary to their religious beliefs. They say it all comes down to patient's rights vs. religious freedom and we know which is more important.
At the heart of this proposed regulation is language completely redefining the word abortion, which has nothing to do with current medical definitions, but praise be to the Lord, these wackos never let science get in their way. Now they are applying their historical rewriting abilities to rewriting science as they define that which is offensive:
"any of the various procedures -- including the prescription, and dispensing -- of any drug, or the performance of any procedure -- that results in the termination of life in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation."The magic bullet in all this is the funding, as any group wanting it must prove to HHS that it does not violate the rights of religious health care workers, forget about the rape victim in front of them who has been violated and needs emergency contraception. We've talked about this on the state level, mostly with contraception, and now we'll get into this on the show too and look forward to your input.
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