September, 24 2008, 08:00am EDT
NARAL Pro-Choice America Praises Senators' Leadership on HHS Regulation, Vows to Keep Pressure on Bush Administration
WASHINGTON
Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, hailed Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Patty Murray for their continued leadership in trying to stop a Bush administration proposal that could undermine women's access to essential health-care services, including birth control.
Sens. Clinton and Murray met today with Mike Leavitt, secretary of Health and Human Services, about this proposal. The senators later issued a joint statement about this meeting and urged Americans to contact HHS to oppose this regulation.
"When Sens. Clinton and Murray met with Secretary Leavitt today, they represented thousands upon thousands of Americans who have expressed their outrage at the Bush administration's 11th--hour attack on birth control," Keenan said. "We are proud to stand with these pro-choice leaders as they call on the Bush administration to answer fundamental questions about the effect this proposal would have on patient care. All we want is an explicit statement that the regulation will not be stretched to include birth control, or undermine current laws that protect women's access to reproductive-health services."
NARAL Pro-Choice America, which was cited in the original July 15 article in The New York Times about the proposed regulation, channeled 25,558 comments to a section of the HHS web site that asked for public reaction to this proposal. The comment period ends on Thursday.
For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.
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