The Bush administration’s proposal to expand health workers’ right to avoid participating in performing abortions advanced this week, according to ProPublica.org (a non-profit investigative reporting site that deserves to be checked regularly).While the article has some of the buzzwords we journalists use to get a certain point across (“a controversial midnight regulation”), it gives an evenhanded account of what is, well, a controversial midnight regulation.Now if the Bush administration would only expand its respect for conscience into other areas … for example, the hundreds of soldiers who have said conscience forbids them from serving in the war in Iraq.

Paul Moses is the author, most recently, of The Italian Squad: The True Story of the Immigrant Cops Who Fought the Rise of the Mafia (NYU Press, 2023). He is a Commonweal contributing writer. Bluesky: @PaulBMoses.bsky.social

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