Public Meeting: Birth Control Regulation

On August 19th, the US Department of Health and Human Services issued new regulations under the name of “Protecting Providers’ Conscience”. These regulations will allow health care professionals to determine for themselves, on the basis of their religious beliefs, what kind of medical or other information they will provide their patients in regard to the provision of contraception. This appears to mean that “informed consent’ will no longer be a required part of medical protocol for doctors, nurses or other health care professionals.

To understand better exactly what these regulations in fact say, and what the implications of these regulations might mean in the lives of women and men and families, a public meeting will be held on September 6, 2008, at 12:30 in the City Council Chambers in the Showers Building.

Guest speakers will include:

• Gayla Winston, President of the Indiana Family Health Council (the provider of Title X funds for family planning in the state of Indiana)

• Betty Cockrum, President of Planned Parenthood of Indiana
• Dr. Judith Klein, long-time provider of family planning services

“This is a frontal assault on women’s right to KNOW and threatens to turn the concept of informed consent on its head,” said Charlotte Zietlow, one of the organizers of this informational event. “Citizens need to understand the content and implications of these new regulations so they can comment on them before September 25th.”

This meeting is being sponsored by Lauren Rodman, Charlotte Zietlow, Sophia Travis, Vi Simpson, Regina Moore and Susan Sandberg and co-sponsored by the Democratic Women’s Caucus Political Action Committee and Planned Parenthood of Indiana.