George W Bush started his presidential term by issuing “an executive order to stop federal funds to international health organizations that provide abortion services or counseling(sic).” Having opened on the world stage he is closing on the homefront by enacting the ‘Conscience Rule’

Under the rule, any worker involved in the delivery of health care–including doctors, pharmacists, nurses, volunteers and interns–would be able to refuse to provide any medical procedure or medication based on moral, ethical or religious beliefs if they work at an institution that receives federal aid.

This would of course include abortion and offering emergency contraception to rape victims. Many young women are unaware of EPC and so would not think to seek it out should it not be suggested and/or prescribed to them. Kim Gandy of NOW points out that “Sixty percent of forcible rapes occur before the victim is 18 years old”

Which leads one to wonder what sort of conscience a person would need to be in possession of to force a young woman to be further violated by nine months of unwanted pregnancy and then the act of birth.

Certainly in any democracy we must make exceptions for those who cannot act against their conscience, at the same time one person’s rights ends where another’s begins and no woman should be left without access to appropriate health care.

In February 2007 the New England Journal of Medicine published a study which showed that 86% of physicians believed it their responsibility to present all options to patients regardless of their own moral objections. Only 8% believed otherwise. While this may seem a small number it is large to any woman who is under that physicians care and may have a significant impact on the estimated 272,350 women a year who are victims of rape.

It is bad enough to have to come to terms with a rape or an unwanted pregnancy, regardless of how it came to be, without then having to be further traumatized by those upon whom you must rely to help you.

Sources:
Women’s ENews
New Humanist