The Health and Human Services Department (HHS) this week unveiled a new rule exempting health care providers from being required to perform abortions or provide certain types of birth control if they claim they’re morally opposed to doing so.

Michael Leavitt, secretary of the HHS, told reporters at a press conference, "Doctors and other healthcare providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience."

The proposed regulation was the focus of heated debate when it first came to light last month, and women’s rights advocates say that it will create situations in which women will be denied access to birth control, a legal right.

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said: "Women’s ability to manage their own healthcare is at risk of being compromised by politics and ideology."

Roberts envisions scenarios in which women who seek birth control devices or abortions from their primary care physicians will be turned away, without so much as a referral to another doctor in the practice. The regulation allows for doctors to not refer patients to another provider who is not opposed to birth control or abortion.

This is where it gets dicey, say legal experts, who anticipate future lawsuits if women are denied basic health care to which they – currently – have a legal right to.

But Leavitt emphasized that the regulation would not deny any patient his or her basic rights, saying, "Nothing in the new regulation in any way changes a patient's right to any legal procedure," adding that any patient would still have the right to choose another provider.

Planned Parenthood representatives say that patients may or may not be aware of this, and won’t get the necessary information they need to make informed decisions. "Planned Parenthood continues to be concerned that the Bush administration's proposed regulation poses a serious threat to women's health care by limiting the rights of patients to receive complete and accurate health information and services," said Richards.

But the wording of the regulation is careful to emphasize it will not deny patients their rights. "This regulation does not limit patient access to health care, but rather protects any individual health care provider or institution from being compelled to participate in, or from being punished for refusal to participate in, a service that, for example, violates their conscience," says the proposed rule.