Here's Mike Leavitt, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. He looks so I-coach-soccer-on-the-weekends, doesn't he? Turns out he has a blog, in which he describes his works and travels. He certainly seems to care about his job and the people he visited in his summer trip to Africa - it's a shame that although he promotes PEPFAR and enjoys being crowned an honorary tribal chief, he doesn't have a problem with the Global Gag Rule and doesn't mind that his administration's policies tie the hands of health care workers trying to fight the AIDS epidemic. Anyway.Here on his official blog he muses on the reasons why he's in favor of a proposed HHS rule strengthening "conscientious objection" to providing any services (e.g. emergency contraception) that is at odds with a provider's religious affiliation - to the point of threatening the rights of patients, and the rights of non-objecting physicians. This has been well covered elsewhere, but I learned about it today - and there's still time to comment! I was at a lecture today given by Lois Uttley, who testified before the Prez' Council on Bioethics last week about the proposed rule.
Our Bodies, Our Blog wrote about this when it first came out. Hillary Clinton & Cecile Richards published an NYT op-ed a few days ago. You can Google your way
Here's the official story - here's where you tell HHS that physicians are hampered and patient-centered care damaged by such a rule.
