The Bush administration is putting forward a new regulation that could dissuade physicians and health-care companies from providing birth control to women. The rule distorts the difference between abortion and birth control and may menace good state laws that are protective with women's access to contraceptive means.

The draft rule, which would give doctors and health-care companies the permission to deny women birth control, is still being revised and deliberated, circulating inside the Department of Health and Human Services. It says that birth-control pills and intrauterine devices (IUD) - the world's most widely used method of reversible birth control - are putting an end to "the life of a human being."

The bylaw’s effects on contraception would not be seen straight away because, although the moral and legal aspects of abortion are topic to social debate in many parts of the world, in U.S abortion is legal. However, opponents worry that it would undercut many state laws aimed to uphold easy access to contraceptive methods, used by over12 million women each year.

On the one hand, conservative groups, abortion opponents and some members of Congress, who believe that aborting a pregnancy is morally equivalent to infanticide or killing an adult human being, consider the regulation essential to safeguard health employees that, they say, are gradually facing discrimination due to their beliefs or are being forced to deliver revolting services.

On the other hand, planning advocates, women's health activists, and several members of Congress perceive the regulation as a serious obstacle for women looking for abortion and birth control.

If the initiative encouraged some insurance companies to reduce coverage for prescription birth control, "that would be fantastic," asserted Tom McClusky, Vice President for Government Affairs for Family Research Council.