Clinton vows to fight "insulting" U.S. abortion plan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Bush administration plan to defineseveral widely used contraception methods as abortion is a"gratuitous, unnecessary insult" to women and faces toughopposition, Sen. Hillary Clinton said on Friday.

The former Democratic presidential candidate joined familyplanning groups to condemn the proposal that defines abortionto include contraception such as birth control pills andintrauterine devices.

It would cut off federal funds to hospitals and stateswhere medical providers are obligated to offer legal abortionand contraception to women.

"We will not put up with this radical, ideological agendato turn the clock back on women's rights," the New York senatortold a joint news conference with New York Rep. Nita Lowey,also a Democrat, at Bellevue Hospital.

"Women would watch their contraceptive coverage disappearovernight," said Clinton.

The planned rule is aimed at countering recent state lawsenacted to ensure that women can get contraception when theywant or need it. It also would help protect the rights ofmedical providers to refuse to offer contraception.

Clinton said she has written a letter with Patty Murray, aDemocrat senator from Washington, to Health and Human ServicesSecretary Mike Leavitt asking him to reconsider and reject therelease of the proposed rules.

She also urged people to sign a petition on her Web site,www.hillpac.com, against the proposed changes.

"Our first effort is to get the Bush administration torescind the regulation, not issue in its current form," Clintonsaid. "If that doesn't succeed, we're going to be looking forlegislative steps that we can take to prevent this regulationfrom ever going into effect."

A copy of a memo that appears to be an Department of Healthand Human Services draft provided to Reuters this week carriesa broad definition of abortion as any procedures, includingprescription drugs, "that result in the termination of the lifeof a human being in utero between conception and natural birth,whether before or after implantation."

Conception occurs when egg and sperm unite in the Fallopiantubes. It takes three to four days before the fertilized eggimplants in the uterus. Several birth control methods interferewith this, including the birth control pill and IUDs.

"If enacted, these rules will make birth control out ofreach for some women. That's a sure way to guarantee moreunintended pregnancies and more abortions," said Anne Davis ofPhysicians for Reproductive Choice and Health.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Eric Beech)