US official says new rules are not anti-birth control

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt attempted to ease concerns Thursday that the Bush administration is planning to issue new rules that would limit women's access to birth control.

Under federal law, institutions may not discriminate against individuals who refuse to perform abortions or provide a referral for one. The Health and Human Services Department is considering requiring health care providers and organizations to certify their compliance with the law, but in doing so, lawmakers and several interest groups worried that the administration was attempting to lump contraceptives into its definition of abortion.

Leavitt said that was not his intent.

"An early draft of the regulation found its way into public circulation before it had reached my review," Leavitt said on a personal blog posted on the department's Web site. "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."

Leavitt said he wanted the regulation to address the legal right that doctors, nurses and others have to practice according to their conscience.

"The department is still contemplating if it will issue a regulation or not," Leavitt said. "If it does, it will be directly focused on the protection of practitioner conscience."

In a letter sent to Leavitt two weeks ago, Planned Parenthood and 56 other organizations urged him to abandon efforts to issue such a rule. The groups said the draft regulation permits people to refuse to provide women with access to contraceptive services and information. Meanwhile, institutions hiring those workers would be unable to do anything to curb those actions.

"This rule permits health care providers to refuse to perform any service they deem morally objectionable, which raises critical questions about access to all health care services," the groups wrote.

Lawmakers also have been active in urging Leavitt to drop the regulation. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Patty Murray, both Democrats, told Leavitt in a letter the regulation would disrupt state laws securing women's access to birth control and could even undermine laws that ensure rape victims get emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms.