Urge Gov. Pawlenty to Stand Up to the Bush Administration
One year ago, Gov. Pawlenty signed into law a measure that requires hospitals to provide emergency contraception in the emergency room to rape survivors to help prevent a pregnancy after a violent attack. The legislature passed the measure with near-universal support. But a proposed Bush administration regulation could jeopardize that law. The regulation, which confuses the definitions of abortion and birth control, would allow health-care corporations and insurance plans to refuse to provide or cover many commonly used forms of birth control, including emergency contraception that Minnesota emergency rooms are currently required to provide to rape survivors who request it. We need to show our political muscle! Please send a message to Gov. Pawlenty asking him to call on the Bush administration to stop action on the proposed regulation. Here's a suggested letter to send: Dear Governor Pawlenty: I am writing today to urge you to call on the Bush administration to stop action on a new regulation that could seriously undermine the health and well-being of women across our state. The proposed regulation is so overly broad that it could undermine state laws that seek to ensure the availability of birth control, even laws like the one you signed last year that protect survivors of rape and sexual assault. The regulation would almost certainly negate the benefits of our state’s law and jeopardize rape and sexual-assault survivors’ ability to receive information about and access to emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms. This proposed regulation will not only lead to unintended pregnancies, but will leave millions of women across our state without reproductive-health care. I urge you now to ask the Bush administration not to advance this flawed and unnecessary public policy. Click here to send an email letter directly to Governor Pawlenty today! Or call him at (800) 657-2717 and ask him to stop President Bush's regulation..
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