In the new proposed regulations for the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Bush Administration distorts the concept of religious liberty, erects barriers to health care for women, and wastes tax payer money.

In the guise of protecting religious liberty and individual conscience, these regulations are one-sided and will trample a woman's legal and moral right to needed health care services.

In fact, by honoring the personal objections of some health care providers above the needs of women, these regulations, through the denial of services, will force beliefs on women who do not share them.

Specifically, the draft proposed regulations

• PERMIT institutions as well as individuals to refuse to provide women access to contraceptive services and information.

• PERMIT health care providers to refuse to perform any service they deem morally objectionable - which raises critical questions about access to all health care services.

• REDEFINE pregnancy as beginning with fertilization of the egg - counter to the government's own longstanding policy, as well as that of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), which state that pregnancy begins with the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus.

• REDEFINE abortion to include common methods of contraception which may work by interfering with implantation. Birth control pills and IUDs could be disallowed.

Please contact President Bush and Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt today to express your opposition to these one-sided regulations that unjustly favor providers who object to certain reproductive services at the expense of women who need and deserve them.

For more information, go to www.mircrc.org