Despite the outrage over a proposed regulation that would dishonestly define birth control as abortion, will the administration be dissuaded from the stealth attack on women's rights?

Editorial Board, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Ken Mitchell

The Bush administration has heard the outrage over a proposed regulation that would dishonestly define birth control as abortion. A Cabinet officer is trying to calm the objections from women's groups and Democrats such as Sen. Patty Murray, but only sustained public and political pressure can stop the repeal of a half-century of progress in family planning.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt used a personal blog to deny he intends to do anything other than strengthen legal protections for health care professionals against any requirement they, against their personal conscience, be forced to perform abortions. Leavitt blamed the media – who else? – for a misunderstanding: "An early draft of the regulations found its way into public circulation before it had reached my review. It contained words that lead some to conclude my intent is to deal with the subject of contraceptives, somehow defining them as abortion. Not true."

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