For Immediate Release:	July 15, 2008
For More Information:	Allison Conyers, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, aconyers@nfprha.org, 202-293-3114, ext. 204
Sponsor Organization:	National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association
Statement by Mary Jane Gallagher, President and CEO, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association
The new regulations, poised for release by the Bush Administration, would be an unprecedented federal rule that would allow health care providers to deny women contraception if implemented. This attempt by right-wing extremists could endanger millions of women and men by restricting access to essential family planning services. Currently, low-income and uninsured women and men who walk into a government-funded health care facility to receive family planning services do so with the full knowledge and expectation that they will receive access to the full range of contraceptive services. These proposed rules could mean that providers of federally-funded family planning services could no longer guarantee their patients access to contraception, as they would redefine abortion so broadly as to include many methods of contraception, including oral contraception, intrauterine devices and emergency contraception. The real intent of the draft rules is to drastically limit access to contraception by calling into question these medically proven health care services that have helped people stay healthy and plan strong families for decades. It would also override many state protections that guarantee access to contraception and other reproductive health services. Its clear that these new regulations would limit the availability of essential health care for those who need it most. The Bush Administration is once again pandering to the far right and putting low-income and uninsured Americans on the chopping block. We must reject attacks by anti-family planning extremists to limit access to widely used essential health care like contraception. If we do not, it will jeopardize the ability of millions of women and men to have meaningful access to family planning services. These proposed regulations present a pressing and urgent threat to the state of public health in America, and I urge both Congress and the American people to act quickly and decisively in rejecting this attack on all of our families. -###- The National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) is a vital membership organization of dedicated family planning providers – public health departments