Mari Ness - The birth control conditions for federal aid

Rising up to point you to this article:

Apparently to shield health workers objecting to abortion, Bush administration proposing conditions on federal aid for health programs.

I have no objections to the federal government putting strings on federal money -- indeed, I rather wish that more strings had been attached to the massive bailouts happening over at Fannie and Freddie Mae (like, for instance, stating that since their executives have clearly not done the best jobs of running those two places, they should see salary reductions as a consequence. But I digress.) I also, in principle, agree with any statement arguing for less discrimination in hiring cases.

What concerns me here, though, is this bit, the definition of abortion:

"any of the various procedures — including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action — that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation."

This includes, in many minds, IUDs and the pill -- which the majority of women use primarily so that they won't have an abortion, but that isn't the point.

The two points are this: 1) by this definition, a blastocyst (the initial state of embryonic development in all vertebrates, including humans) is a human being, which I have severe biological questions on; 2) the greater issue, of course, is that this forces hospitals and other health care providers to hire people that can legally refuse to dispense prescribed medication.

As I've stated before, not everybody goes on the pill or Depo-Provera or the Nuvo Ring or whatever to prevent pregnancy: many women go on these medications to prevent major, debilitating cramps, anemia, and other health problems. I was one of these women, and it's not an exaggeration to say that Norplant allowed me to keep my job and my life.