Senator Hillary Clinton joined family planning groups to oppose the Bush administration plan that defines abortion to include contraception devices such as birth control pills and intrauterine devices.  The draft proposal written by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) required all hospitals receiving federal aid to hire medical professionals who opposed contraception including birth control pills.

"The more I learn about these rules by the Bush administration, the more appalled I am and the more determined I am to stop them," Clinton said. "This is a gratuitous, unnecessary insult to the women of the United States of America. These rules pose a dire threat to women's health, to health-care providers, and to uninsured and low-income Americans seeking care. It is a disgrace, but unfortunately it is not a surprise."

The New York Senator along with other prominent Democratic lawmakers feels that the proposal is a serious threat to women’s access to contraception, including the ones who need it and when the state law guarantees it. "Women would watch their contraception coverage disappear overnight," Clinton said outside New York City's Bellevue Hospital. New York is one of 14 states with laws which guarantee a woman access to emergency contraception. Clinton felt the new proposal would change that and it would mean sexual assault victims would have no help.

"Under these Bush rules, an ideologically-driven hospital administrator or an emergency room supervisor or a doctor or a nurse on duty could deny this woman access to emergency contraception, so the woman who survived the assault would now be at risk of becoming pregnant, denied the care she needs in her hour of greatest need," she said.

The proposal if it went through would cut off federal funds to hospitals and states who offer legal abortion and contraception to women. Sen. Clinton urged people to sign a protest petition against the proposed changes on her website www.hillpac.com.

"If enacted, these rules will make birth control out of reach for some women. That's a sure way to guarantee more unintended pregnancies and more abortions," said Anne Davis of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health. “We will not put up with this radical, ideological agenda to turn the clock back on women's rights. Our first effort is to get the Bush administration to rescind the regulation, not issue in its current form," Clinton said. "If that doesn't succeed, we're going to be looking for legislative steps that we can take to prevent this regulation from ever going into effect."