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The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Ted Miller, 202.973.3032

NARAL Pro-Choice America Vows to Keep Fighting Bush Administration's Attack on Women's Health

Organization’s activists submit 25,558 comments opposing proposed regulation that could undermine birth control and other health services

WASHINGTON

Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America will send 2,500 birth-control packs to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The packs, which are replicas of the pill pack, represent the thousands of activists who signed a petition to protest the Bush administration's proposal that could undermine women's access to essential health-care services, including birth control.

NARAL Pro-Choice America, which was cited in the original July 15 article in The New York Times about the proposed regulation, also channeled 25,558 comments to a section of the HHS web site that asked for public reaction to this proposal. That comment period ends today.

"This delivery and the thousands upon thousands of Americans who have expressed their outrage at the Bush administration's 11th--hour attack on birth control underscore why this proposal must not go forward," Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said. "We call on the Bush administration to listen to the public's outrage over the potential effects this proposal would have on patient care. All we want is an explicit statement that the regulation will not stretch the definition of abortion to include birth control, or undermine current laws that protect women's access to reproductive-health services."

Leading members of the U.S. Senate and House from both sides of the debate over reproductive rights sent letters calling on Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt to abandon the regulation. On Tuesday, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Patty Murray met with Secretary Leavitt to raise concerns about the proposal. In addition, medical organizations, faith-based groups, governors, state attorneys general, and state legislators all have publicly called for the Bush administration to abandon the proposed regulation.

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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