HHS Comment Deadline is Fast Approaching

April 1, 2009

…..SPECIAL ALERT…..

HHS Comment Deadline is Fast Approaching

If you haven't sent your comments to HHS regarding President Obama's intention to rescind the Leavitt/Bush regulation enforcing protection of the rights of conscience of health care providers and institutions, please do so right away.

The comment period ends on April 9!

Protection for the rights of health care personnel to refuse to act in violation of their consciences must be retained in HHS regulations. No one should be threatened with job loss or any other type of discrimination because of their ethical, moral or religious beliefs.

The Department of Health and Human Services has published the following announcement in the Federal Register: Rescission of the Regulation Entitled "Ensuring That Department of Health and Human Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or Practices in Violation of Federal Law." [Click here to view the Federal Register announcement. At the top of the page you will see the reference. At the bottom you will see "View this document." You can click on either the PDF or HTML version.]

Comments may be submitted in the following ways: Electronically via e-mail to proposedrescission@hhs.gov via regular, express, or overnight mail sent to:

Office of Public Health and Human Services, Attention: Rescission Proposal Comments, Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 200 Independence Avenue, SW., Room 716G, Washington, DC 20201, or by hand or courier delivery to the same address and dropped in the mail drop slots in the main lobby. [The building is accessible only to persons with federal government identification.]

Comments sent via facsimile will not be accepted.

The Leavitt/Bush regulation required any entity, including individuals, receiving federal funds through HHS to certify their compliance with federal laws protecting health care providers and personnel from discrimination because of their refusal to participate in or abet in any way the performance of abortion or any other medical actions they find morally or religiously objectionable.

Several federal laws protect the rights of conscience of health care providers. The Church Amendments and the Hyde/Weldon Amendment to the Labor/HHS annual appropriations bill are described in the Federal Register.

Please send in your comments. Please circulate this information among your friends and colleagues, with special attention to anyone you know who works in the medical, biomedical, or pharmaceutical field.

Thank you!

Never forget that you were once an embryo.