Abortion Law Likely To Stick

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MADELEINE BRAND, host.

This is Day to Day. I'm Madeleine Brand.

ALEX COHEN, host

And I'm Alex Cohen. Coming up, if homes aren't selling in Florida why are builders planning a new development in an environmentally sensitive area that's long been off limits.

BRAND: But first, President Bush has just about a month left, not much time for his administration to issue new regulations. It will issue a new one this week though and it's one that will please anti-abortion activist. NPR's Julie Rovner is here to explain. And Julie what is this new rule?

JULIE ROVNER: What we're expecting is that this is a rule that will allow people who have moral objections to abortion or perhaps any other reproductive-related issue to not participate in any of those of activities.

BRAND: These are health-care providers?

ROVNER: These are health-care providers but they're not just health care providers, not just doctors and nurses but pharmacists, clerks, perhaps whole hospitals or entire health plans would be covered by these regulations.

BRAND: So what would that mean that they would not have to perform abortions? They'd not - they wouldn't have to issue contraception?

ROVNER: Yes, all of the above. They would not only, not have to participate in or perform abortions or contraceptions, but what's really at issue here is that they wouldn't have to refer patient to want these services to other people who would perform these services. And that's really at the nub of what's going on here. There are currently on the books lots of laws that already protect health care providers from having to violate their moral or religious beliefs. Some of them date back to the early 1970s before Roe v. Wade, before abortion was even legal. But what these regulations would do is basically expand that beyond doctors and nurses to basically anyone who's associated with health care and say that, that no one has to do basically anything that violates any of their beliefs even if they're only tangentially related to the act of providing health care services.

BRAND: So why does the Bush administration want this new rule?

ROVNER: Well it really goes back to a kind of a tiff that HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt got into last year with the group that overseas obstetricians and gynecologists. That group came out with a new ethics guideline that basically said that if a doctor could not provide what they called quote, "standard reproductive services" that that doctor had the obligation to tell patients that upfront and to refer those patients to a doctor who would. And again we're not just talking about abortion here. We're talking about birth control, emergency contraception. Secretary Leavitt got in a fight with the board that certifies doctors about whether or not they would be willing to certify doctors, who refuse to refer, and that's basically what led to this argument and that's what led to these regulations.

BRAND: So this is obviously being fought by pro-choice groups, right?

ROVNER: Yes it's being fought but not just by pro-choice groups. You've got the EEOC, The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that says that these regulations basically interfere with existing Civil Rights laws. You've got attorneys general who were worried about the way that this might conflict with other types of laws. You've got all kinds of possibilities, for instance you could have a doctor who would refuse to give an HIV test to a gay person because they morally objected to the fact that that person was a homosexual. So you've got basically all kinds of possible ramifications to these laws that go well beyond abortion and possibly well beyond birth control. So you've got objections coming from beyond the Abortion Rights Movement.

BRAND: All right. So come January 20th when there's a new president in town, can't he just simply over turn these regulations?

ROVNER: Well, actually, the new president can't overturn these regulations, but because the administration has waited so long, it's possible that the new Congress can. There's something called the Congressional Review Act and because these regulations are coming so late in the administration they are falling within the window of that Congressional Review Act. There are expedited procedures. Congress would only have to get a majority vote in the House and Senate. And in the Senate it couldn't be filibustered and because these regulations are so controversial. It would be likely that this would be the type of regulation that could be taken up and overturned under the Congressional Review Act then the new President would merely have to sign it.

BRAND: But it sounds like a fairly lengthy process.

ROVNER: It's not that lengthy. It's certainly a little more lengthy than some of the other things that President-elect Obama is expected to do on the Reproductive Rights front but it's certainly easier than having to go through the entire regulatory process again, to put through an entire rule and to go in and take more public comment.

BRAND: NPR's Julie Rovner covering health care policy for us. Thank you, Julie.

ROVNER: You're welcome.

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