The Bush administration issued on Tuesday a regulation that expands protections for health care professionals who choose not to participate in certain procedures, such as abortion and birth control, because of moral objections.

Under the “conscience rule,“ as it was called, health care workers will have the right to say that they don’t want to offer or take part in certain procedures, such as abortion, birth control, stem cells research, assisted suicide and in vitro fertilization. Taking effect mid-January, the day before President Bush’s leaves office, the rule will protect the right of health professionals to care for their patients according to their conscience.

No worker in the health care industry should ever be forced by regulations to have a contribution in a procedure that infringes his or her convictions, said Catholic League president Bill Donohue. “This should be an elementary right, yet there are those who want to trespass on it.”

If medical facilities, physicians’ offices and pharmacies will attempt to oblige their employees to participate in activities contrary to their beliefs, they will lose their federal funding for violating the 127-page rule, which was issued in the last days of the Bush administration.

On the other hand, critics believe that the rule’s protections for employees in the health care field are so broad that they limit one’s right to get care and accurate information.

"From day one, this administration has made ideology and politics a priority over patients' rights and needs, and this regulation is no different," said Cecile Richards, President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA).