A proposed federal rule change to redefine pregnancy and abortion would override a recent Minnesota law requiring all hospitals to offer rape victims emergency contraception.
If approved by the Department of Health and Human Services, the rule would broaden the definition of abortion to include the most widely used forms of birth control, which can prevent implantation of a fertilized egg.
The existing abortion definition used by the federal government and medical groups is the removal of a fertilized egg that has successfully implanted in the uterine wall, where it would continue to grow.
— "Federal agency may redefine abortion rules," Star Tribune
The Bush Administration's new draft proposal looks like the act of a losing army preparing to abandon its fort. Before it retreats, it torches anything that might be of use to the advancing enemy.
In this case, it's a last-ditch attack on women's rights to control their own reproductive systems, under the cloak of guaranteeing choice to health care workers who don't want to participate in abortion or sterilization procedures.
The new rule would cover dispensing emergency contraception, called Plan B, as well as voluntary sterilization by tubal ligation. (I haven't read the proposal, so I don't know if it also covers objections to vasectomies. Maybe that's next.)
As a Star Tribune editorial asks, "What century is this?"
Actually, it looks a lot like the 20th century, prior to 1972.
The first reported tubal sterilization was performed in 1880 at the time of a cesarean delivery, but it continued to be controversial, according to Herbert B. Peterson [subscription only]:
For example, a debate on whether a woman had the right to choose to undergo sterilization took place during the 21st annual meeting of the American Gynecological Society in 1896, with one member declaring, "The mere fact that she does not want to have more children should not decide the question."
Fitting, I suppose, since the mere fact a woman did not want to have sex was not considered very relevant, either.
Tubals did not become available to women in all states until 1972, when the courts struck down restrictions against abortion — and the same year Title IX was passed, prohibiting discrimination against girls and women in federally funded education, including athletic programs.
You may remember Presidents Reagan and Bush the elder didn't like that one, either.
