Media Center: Health and Human Services (HHS) Regulations

On December 18, 2008, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued regulations that expand current federal conscience laws, allowing a broad range of healthcare providers and institutions to refuse to provide certain reproductive health services. The regulations also allow workers to withhold information about procedures they find objectionable, including abortion, sterilization, and some forms of contraception.

PRCH physicians spoke out about the importance of balancing a provider’s conscience with a patient’s right to medical care.

What Our Doctors Are Saying

“If enacted, these rules will make birth control out of reach for some women. That’s a sure way to guarantee more unintended pregnancies and more abortions.” —PRCH consulting medical director Anne Davis, MD, MPH, Reuters

Resources

• Text of the HHS regulations on conscientious refusal
• PRCH's postion on institutional restrictions and individual refusal clauses
• PRCH consulting medical director Anne Davis, MD, MPH, spoke against the HHS regulations at the President’s Council on Bioethics
• Six national medical organizations joined with PRCH to oppose the regulations
• A letter from PRCH to President Obama urging him to overturn the HHS regulations