Under FOCA, health care professionals and organizations would not be allowed to decline to perform or participate in an abortion on religious grounds. Objecting for conscience sake, they would loose their right to practice within their profession.
But it doesn't stop there. FOCA would also sweep away state and federal funding restrictions on abortion forcing you and me as taxpayers to foot the bill for more and more abortions. FOCA works against the current Hyde Amendment which exists to protect the conscience of taxpayers who do not want to be implicated in actively funding abortion.
Is it not frightening that the right of a women to abort her child could trump your right to follow your own conscience and your religious convictions?!?
It is one thing to allow others to make a choice you disagree with. It is quite another to be forced to actively fund that other person's choice. In the case of late-term, on-demand abortion, both the legalizing and the public funding of it are unacceptable. FOCA would legislate both.
I love how Rebecca summarizes it:
There is a peice of legislation right now called the Fredom of Choice Act (FOCA) that bears an uncanny resemblence to Haman's decree. It is calling for the permanent and broad-sweeping stamp of approval on abortion, including the end of all bans on partial birth abortion, all requirements that women be informed about the risks of abortion, that only licensed physicians perform abortions, and that parents be informed and give consent to their minor daughter's abortions. In a word, it is stating that any citizen can annihilate a baby without any consequence or restrictions whatsoever.
In addition to the annihilation of the unborn, this legislation also removes legal protections for individual healthcare providers who decline to participate in abortions, and for Catholic and other religiously-affiliated hospitals who, while providing care to millions of poor and uninsured Americans, refuse to allow abortions within their facilities.
Please sign the Fight FOCA petition today.
The time to act is now, before President-elect, Barack Obama, fulfills his campaign promise that signing FOCA into law would be "the first thing I'd do as President."
For evidence that public funding of abortion increases abortion rates—as well as the corresponding evidence that economic policies that support women in crisis are key for decreasing abortion—please see the informative pdf article published by Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good: "Reducing Abortion in America: The Effects of Economic and Social Supports." (HT: Donald Miller by way of Kirsten)
The Guttmacher Institute also provides an overview of abortion statistics. [HT: Hope of M.O.M.S. NB: Hope also has other great suggestions for taking constructive pro-life action.]
3 comments:
I'm just wondering, and I mean this in no way as a criticsm, but have you actually read the FOCA bill? I've read it a couple of times and I still have a hard time figuring out how these criticisms are extrapolated from it.
In particular, I really don't see how the bill, as written, obligates doctors to perform abortions against their will, provides public funding for abortion, reinstates partial birth abortion, or repeals all restrictions on abortion. Maybe I'm just being obtuse and missing something? As far as I can tell, the bill would allow women to choose abortion up to (about?) 24 weeks, and would allow abortions when the life and health of the mother are in danger during the 3rd trimester. I don't really see how it implies those other things though, could you explain?
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-1173
Becks,
Thanks for the link. Now I have read the actual text. :o)
Why think that FOCA would repeal restrictions on abortions? Well, just consider the claims of FOCA's own sponsors. It's not pro-life extremists who are making these claims about what FOCA will do. The sponsors know it and claim it, too:
"In her accompanying press release, Senator Boxer explained that FOCA would 'supersede all other abortion related laws, regulations or local ordinances,' which included informed consent laws and any health and safety regulations imposed on abortion clinics.
"Although expressing as its goal the simple codification of Roe, FOCA also expressly provided that it would apply 'to every Federal, State, and local statute, ordinance, regulation, administrative order, decision, policy, practice, or other action enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or after the date of enactment.' As Senator Boxer eloquently explained in 2004, 'FOCA [will] supersede all other laws,' especially those that the Supreme Court has held to be constitutional under Roe and its progeny."
Read more analysis here.
thanks for posting this!! such an important issue.
Post a Comment