The Bush administration passed on Thursday the “conscience protection” rule, according to which doctors, hospitals and even receptionists and volunteers in medical experiments can refuse to take part in certain medical procedures if said procedures are against their religious beliefs or moral convictions.

 

The rule, which will go into effect the day before President George Bush leaves office, will allow doctors to say no to abortion, birth control, emergency contraception, in vitro fertilization, stem cell research and assisted suicide. The rule will apply to more than 584,000 healthcare facilities.

 

Such a rule was welcomed, as expected, by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Christian Medical Assn. and Americans United for Life, as well as other conservative groups and abortion opponents.

 

But women’s health and family planning advocates, abortion-rights activists, members of Congress and others criticized it saying 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.

 

President-elect Barack Obama also criticized the rule when it was proposed last summer when he and his administration stated that they were “committed to ensuring that the health and reproductive rights of women are protected.” Now, spokesman Nick Shapiro issued a statement that said Obama “will review all eleventh-hour regulations and will address them once he is president.” However, it would take months before the Obama administration could revise such a rule.