WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry today called on the President-elect’s incoming administration to reverse the regulation President Bush passed today that will seriously limit patients, especially women, from receiving health care services. The rule, which will go into effect before Bush leaves office, allows hospitals to deny services to individuals that hospital employees see as “violating their conscious” according to Secretary Michael Leavitt of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS.)

“This 11th hour new edict denies patients end-of-life care and family planning and restricts essential research initiatives,” said Kerry. “I hope that President-elect Obama will use his power to reverse this misguided policy within the first one hundred days of his administration.”

In November of this year, Senator Kerry cosponsored Sens. Hillary Clinton’s and Patty Murray’s legislation to prevent HHS from enacting this rule that seriously threatens heath care for women and families.

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