a note from Stan

Full disclosure: Last November I joined the board of directors of Planned Parenthood of Cameron and Willacy Counties, a non-governmental agency delivering health care and education to more than eleven thousand women locally. Our motto is “Prevention First,” and we believe that quality, scientifically based education, including contraceptive methods, is the first step in effective family planning choices and that women and men have a right to a full range of medical services when it comes to their reproductive health. Planned Parenthood of Cameron and Willacy Counties provides educational services and medical care to residents of two of the poorest counties in the country, and we have done so despite a federal administration that seems at times dedicated to preventing us from providing those services.

The latest attack is a “stealth attack” by regulation. The Bush administration has proposed regulations that may require agencies such as ours to hire people diametrically opposed to our program.

But Cecille Richards and Hillary Clinton have stated the problem and solution today in an op-ed piece in the New York Times much more clearly than I can. Here’s the first paragraph and a link.

LAST month, the Bush administration launched the latest salvo in its eight-year campaign to undermine women’s rights and women’s health by placing ideology ahead of science: a proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that would govern family planning. It would require that any health care entity that receives federal financing — whether it’s a physician in private practice, a hospital or a state government — certify in writing that none of its employees are required to assist in any way with medical services they find objectionable.

The rest of the story.