Federal health officials have proposed a new regulation that would offer protection to doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who decline their participation in abortions or certain other healthcare services on account of personal, religious or moral grounds.  

The proposed rule, which was published Wednesday in the Federal Register by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and applies only to healthcare facilities that benefit from government money, gives federal health officials the right to pull funding from over 584,000 hospitals, clinics, health plans, doctors' offices and other entities provided that they fail to accommodate employees who don’t want to take part in training for abortions on the basis of their personal, moral or religious beliefs.

"This is about protecting the right of a physician to practice medicine according to his or her moral compass," said Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt. "There is nothing in this rule that would in any way change a patient's right to a legal procedure," he added.

Abortion opponents described the proposed rule as a triumph for the First Amendment. On the other hand, supporters of induced abortion said they were afraid of the rule becoming so expansive that it would include birth control, the Associated Press reported.

According to Planned Parenthood attorney Roger Evans, a main legal problem with this regulation is that it doesn’t explain what actually represents an abortion. In this manner, it could be stretched, he said.

As expected, the Bush administration's proposed regulation was strongly appreciated by conservative organizations and abortion opponents.

Implementing the rule, which could go into effect after 30 days, would cost over $44 million.