Media Bias, Part XXXIII

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services finalized the so-called "conscience rule" affirming "the right of federally funded health care providers to decline to participate in services to which they object, such as abortion." The text of the rules was published in Friday's Federal Register.

That same day, the New York Times called the provisions:

[P]art of a flurry of regulations it is announcing before President-elect Barack Obama takes office. The new president will be able to undo the regulations, and is virtually certain to, given his previous comments on the issue. But undoing them will be a time-consuming process.

The measures announced on Thursday, sometimes described collectively as the "conscience rule," were issued just in time to take effect before the start of the new administration.

Not addressed by the Times:

1. The HHS regulations simply allow certain Federal or Federally funded health care professionals with moral objections to decline to perform abortions. Isn't "tolerance" of the beliefs of others part of the leftist agenda? Not for the religious faithful--especially pharmacists.



2. The HHS regulation actually was mandated by long-standing statutes. (To its credit, the WaPo story mentioned that.) Thus, classing the rules as the last gasp of departing conservatives simply is wrong--the rules clarified existing rights.

Not that the MSM would ever fact check their hit-pieces.