The Bush Administration is clearly taking advantage of the least few days in office to pass some laws and rules that have shocked the entire nation and are in clear opposition to everything that the president-elect, Barack Obama, has openly supported so far.

 

One of the latest rules passed is the “conscience protection” rule, which enables doctors, hospitals, and even receptionists and volunteers in medical experiments to refuse to conduct certain medical procedures if said procedures are against their religious beliefs or moral convictions.

 

Among the practices that the medical staff can refuse to conduct or participate in are abortion, birth control, emergency contraception, in vitro fertilization, stem cell research and assisted suicide. According to official sources, this rule will go into effect the day before President Bush leaves office.

 

The rule is quite treacherous, as it may lead to doctors keeping information about fetuses with malformations from expecting mothers, as they think abortion is immoral, or doctors not informing rape victims about emergency contraception, as it is their religious or moral conviction that birth control is still a form of abortion.

 

The rule is also in opposition with Obama’s stance on the matter. The president-elect expressed his strong opinion on the conscience-protection rule back in August, when he and his administration stated that they were “committed to ensuring that the health and reproductive rights of women are protected.”