In yesterday's post on the proposed HHS abortion ''conscience'' regulation, I overlooked a very important quote from Secretary Leavitt. Rob Stein of the Washington Post relates the following exchange from Leavitt's Aug. 21 conference call with reporters: But when pressed about whether the regulation would protect health-care workers ...

HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt has issued a final version of his proposed regulation to protect medical conscience (PDF). As predicted, he has dropped the sentence that originally defined abortion as ''any of the various procedures—including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other ...

Dahlia, when you're right, you're right; just walking around with a uterus is enough to get you committed in the court of public opinion, so why perpetuate the whole woman-scorned stereotype with self-destructive, Bat-lady behavior? Yes, rage is its own (and only) reward. But Medea never gets a night off; crazy is a full-time job.   I do ...

Last Tuesday, I wrote about a draft regulation, circulated by the Department of Health and Human Services, that would protect the right of private employees to refuse to facilitate any abortifacient chemical or activity. The draft rule defined abortion as ''any of the various procedures—including the prescription, dispensing and administration of ...

Starting this week, under orders from the state attorney general and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, medical providers in South Dakota must present a scripted statement to women who seek abortions. The script, dictated by the legislature three years ago, declares that any abortion ''will terminate the life of a whole, separate, ...

Most of the time, the Constitution doesn't let employers refuse to hire people on the basis of religious conviction. This has the comforting ring of a bedrock American freedom. But lately, it's being manipulated. First by pharmacists who say they refuse to dispense emergency contraception on the basis of their religous beliefs. And now  by ...

Look who's flirting with animal rights. In recent days, the New York Times has published two in-house commentaries on Spain's move to legislate rights for apes. ''We like to think of these as absolutes: that there are distinct lines between humans and animals,'' Donald McNeil, Jr., wrote Sunday. ''But we're kidding ourselves.'' Yesterday, Adam ...

Rachael, All right, you caught me on my own overheated rhetoric (see what I get for posting at 6 p.m. on the Friday before a holiday weekend? I had a great time at Boston's beautiful fireworks, by the way—hope you had a fab weekend too!). No, I do not believe that being willing to perform abortions should be a requirement for getting and ...

EJ, I hope you had a great holiday weekend. I don't want to wade into general disagreement territory, either—I suppose most of us have our heels dug in deeply enough that we're not going to change one another's minds. But I wanted to address a few points that you made. If indeed the ''harsh rhetoric'' has made abortion less accessible, isn't ...

This abortion ruling strikes me as a lot like the religious culture-war debates, where we spend a lot of time fighting about symbolics and very little about things that matter (a creche vs. faith based funding, abortion language vs. actual access)  The language suggested by the South Dakota law seems wholly beside the point. For one thing, ...