A terrible program with a misleading name was slipped into the final version of the omnibus appropriations bill in November 04. This legislation allows health care organizations to refuse to comply with existing federal, state or local laws pertaining to abortion.

This ‘Abortion Non-discrimination Act’, aka the “Federal Refusal Clause” or the “domestic gag rule” says that health care insurers like Medicare, HMOs, private insurance companies and hospitals can refuse to permit their doctors to provide, refer or even council their patients regarding abortion – even if their patients ask. This program disregards that abortion is legal and sometimes medically necessary. This program violates medical ethics to refuse to give a patient full information about her medical options.

Read about this in the last National NOW Times newsletter.