Women’s groups and some women in Congress are crying foul over a new Bush administration rule that they say is a parting shot against women’s rights to abortion and contraceptive services.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) unveiled the regulation Thursday – which takes effect next month – that aims to protect health-care workers from being forced to take actions that go against their conscience. That may include helping to perform abortions, discussing abortions or doing anything else they have a “moral objection to.”

HHS says there are already legal statutes on the books that protect health-care providers so they can practice according to their conscience, and that these new rules simply increase awareness of and compliance with those rules for providers who receive federal funds.

“Doctors and other health-care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience,” HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said.

HHS says the rule would "in no way restrict health-care providers from performing any legal service or procedure. If a procedure is legal, a patient will still have the ability to access that service from a medical professional or institution that offers it. For example, the regulation does not affect the ability of medical institutions to provide abortion services in accordance with the law."

The rule is actually a watered-down version of the one originally floated, which created a firestorm of criticism from women’s groups. The original language would have explicitly defined abortion, for the first time in a federal law or regulation, as anything that interfered with a fertilized egg after conception.

"Today, the Bush administration did the unconscionable," the National Women’s Law Center said in an e-mail to supporters. HHS “has recklessly and callously finalized a regulation that undermines patients’ access to vital health-care services and information — putting women’s health and lives at serious risk.”

NOW is asking supporters to call on President-elect Barack Obama to repeal the rule once he takes office. Planned Parenthood is making a similar plea [video below], saying that even emergency-room workers caring for a sexual-assault victim could refuse to provide information about emergency contraception.

Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, NY, and Patty Murray, WA, vowed to do whatever it takes to undo the regulation.

"This is the kind of desperate, ideologically driven politics that helped convince Americans it’s time for change," Murray said, according to The Hill. "I will work with President-elect Obama to explore every possible option to ensure women continue to have access to the health care they need."

Added Clinton, soon-to-be secretary of state: "This regulation threatens access to critical health-care services and information, while upending the carefully crafted religious protections for patients and providers already in law."

House Speaker Nancy Pelos, D-CA, also weighed in:

In issuing this midnight regulation, the Bush Administration has once again rejected medical and sound science in favor of misguided ideology that has no place in our government … Make no mistake: This is a direct assault on women’s health care and may jeopardize patients’ rights to receive quality, comprehensive health-care services. Congress will work with President-elect Obama to reverse this rule.

Feel strongly about this issue? Visit the websites of NOW or Planned Parenthood to make your voices heard.