Firestorm on the way to a more responsible 'conscience' rule

Friday's Obama administration move toward rescinding Bush's hastily implemented, two-month-old health workers' "conscience" rule released a burst of outrage from social conservatives. To wit, the Washington Post reported:

"This is going to be a political hit for the administration," said Joel Hunter, senior pastor of the Northland Church in Longwood, Fla., whom Obama recently named to his Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. "This will be one of those things that kind of says, 'I knew it. They talk about common ground, but really what they want is their own way.' "

Yet the rule has already had untoward consequences for patients:

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology has reported cases such as that of a Virginia mother of two who became pregnant because she was denied emergency contraception. In Texas, the group said, a rape victim had her prescription for emergency contraception rejected by a pharmacist.

Seven states -- Illinois, and . California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island -- as well as Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Assn., have filed suits challenging the Bush rule. They argue that the rule is unconstitutional and seek a permanent injunction barring its enforcement.

Friday's action begins a 30-day comment period which prefaces a rule change of the sort proposed. That comment period was not properly observed in the rush to implement the rule.

Clarification of the vague, overly broad rule which resulted from the outgoing Bush administration rush to implement is in any case a requirement of responsible government. Not an abandoment of "common ground."