| | New Bush rule could hit poor, rural women the hardest
 The Bush administration is reportedly planning as one of its final actions to announce a "right of conscience" rule that could further limit access to abortion, particularly for poor and rural women, and might even impact a much broader range of medical procedures.
"We should call this the 'Amish bus-driver rule,'" fumed MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. "If you're Amish and your values and your beliefs will not allow you to operate an automobile, then surely that's your inalienable right -- but consequently, you will not be hired to drive a bus."
The rule would apply to over 500,000 facilities nationwide and would allow all healthcare workers -- not just doctors and pharmacists but potentially even janitors -- to refuse to participate in any procedure they find morally objectionable.
Maddow turned for comment to Princeton professor and reproductive rights activist Melissa Harris-Lacewell, asking, "Do you see this as a major setback for reproductive rights?"
"Absolutely," Harris-Lacewell agreed, although she emphasized that "this right to conscience is not just about reproductive rights" because it could potentially affect everyone.
"This could have a huge impact," she stated. "You want your doctor to be making choices based on medical needs, based on the health of the patient ... not on these moral 'conscience' questions. ... We want to make sure that as a nation these kinds of decisions are not being legislated out by these broad opt-out rules."
Harris-Lacewell explained that regulations like this "right of conscience" rule have "been the new strategy of those who have been opposed to women's reproductive rights. ... Rather than fight this out in the courts ... what you do is limit access. You limit the education that doctors are getting in medical school. You limit the ability of these doctors to practice in various states and localities. You just keep reducing, reducing, reducing."
"That has a disproportionate effect on poor women, on rural women," Harris-Lacewell stated. "Women who have private health insurance, women who have private physicians, tend to have plenty of access to a variety of reproductive rights options. Poor women and women with less access are the ones hit hardest."
This video is from MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast Dec. 2, 2008.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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