Catholic Fire

The 30 day comment period on the Obama administration's plan to rescind a regulation protecting health care workers' conscience rights, saw 340,000 Americans tell the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) that they are at odds with the proposed initiative, reports Citizenlink. Just before his second term ended, President Bush established regulations protecting the rights of healthcare workers to refuse to participate in practices objectionable to their consciences, such as performing abortions or prescribing contraceptives. President Obama, however, wasted little time initiating the first step in striking down Bush's policy, with the official proposal to rescind the Bush-era regulation appearing in the federal register in early March. Carrie Gordon Earll, senior bioethics analyst at Focus on the Family Action, called it a serious situation. Read the rest here.

Cardinal Francis George is urging Catholics in the United States to tell the Obama Administration to retain Health and Human Services regulations governing conscience protections for health care workers. I am elated to see this! Thank you, Cardinal George!

The United States Department of Health and Human Services has publicized new proposed regulations to protect the conscience rights of health care providers. They are inviting comments from the public from now through September 19 . Go there today! The HHS press release announcing can be found here . Comments can be submitted at http://www.regulations.gov/ or via e-mail to consciencecomment@hhs.gov . Related Posts: Catholic Fire: Cardinal Rigali Defends conscience protections for pro-life health workers Jill Stanek: Action needed NOW on DHHS conscience protection regs Christian Newswire: Proposed Regulation Would Protect Health Care Workers' Rights Says Fr. Pavone