Posted on 03/06/2009 12:24:42 PM PST by anniegetyourgun
A proposed bill promising major changes in the U.S. abortion landscape has Roman Catholic bishops threatening to close Catholic hospitals if the Democratic Congress and White House make it law.
The Freedom of Choice Act failed to get out of subcommittee in 2004, but its sponsor is poised to refile it now that former Senate co-sponsor Barack Obama occupies the Oval Office.
A spokesman for Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said the legislation "is among the congressman's priorities. We expect to reintroduce it sooner rather than later."
FOCA, as the bill is known, would make federal law out of the abortion protections established in 1973 by the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade ruling.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
If I were someoen like Jerrold Nadler and had to look at myself in any mirror extant, I might favor abortion too.
(Could St. Louis lose its Catholic hospitals under new federal abortion legislation?)
DUH.... That is the whole idea. The Socialist Obama Regime with the aid of the Socialist and Communist in Congress want ALL citizens to be dependent on the Government for their healthcare.They need to find someway to close down Hospitals that operate with some moral copmpass.
Nadler doesn’t like Catholicism!
Here’s what I don’t understand. Aren’t hospitals private/publicly held corporations and don’t they reserve the right to do certain procedures that they deem wrong? If they are against IVF, they simply don’t offer it, so why would they be required to offer abortions?
You’re thinking like an American. But the liberals have tried to push totalitarian bills like this, and when they own the politicians and the judges, they have been pretty successful.
For instance, there are several states where pharmacists MUST provide abortion drugs to customers, even if it is against their conscience and even if their employers have agreed that they can follow their conscience.
Pharmacists have been fired over this issue, and others have been prosecuted. They may win in the end, but meanwhile their lives have been destroyed and their savings cleaned out.
This issue has come very close to happening in New York City, where Bloomberg said that Catholics could not have freedom of conscience. So far, he has backed down. But these issues don’t go away, and with the liberals riding high we cannot count on the courts to defend our rights.
Some Catholic institutions HAVE backed down, and that encourages the enemy. For instance, a lot of “Catholic” colleges have gay associations on campus, or show The Vagina Monologues, or otherwise violate Catholic principles, and they seem to get away with it. So liberals have reason to hope maybe the hospitals will back down, too. One or two have, in fact, on contraceptives, but then have eventually been pulled back into line by bishops.
But it’s a serious issue. And a lot of people can get hurt, or driven out of the medical profession, so you have no lone left but abortionists and euthanists.
Not to be rude, but I don’t think you answered my question. The pharmacists that you are talking about worked for a pharmacy that didn’t have a problem with those pills. The pharmacy has the right to not provide those pills. That is where I am going with the hospitals - if they don’t offer abortions then the good docs don’t have to worry about being forced to do them. I do thank you for your answer.
No, some states have told pharmacy owners that they MUST provide abortion pills and that everyone working for them MUST provide pills.
A similar law is proposed for hospitals. ALL hospitals MUST provide abortions and contraceptives, like it or not, and all the doctors and nurses and staff working for them.
This certainly violates our constitutional freedoms, but it’s what they intend to do.
The liberals want the Catholic hospitals to close that way there would only be government run hospitals.
They almost certainly get lots of govt. help in the form of grants, etc. I am pretty certain that all kinds of hospitals do, no matter what their ownership. When the govt. gives you money, they heap all sorts of requirements on you. If you want to the dough, you agree to what do they want. TOf course, this does not address the issue at hand. Just replying to your general questions about why private hospitals (like private colleges and universities, same principle) would be subject to govt. regulations.
This thing appears to me to be specifically an attack on Catholic hospitals.
Simple solution -
defy the law and refuse to comply with penalties.
That’s likely what at least some of the bishops will do.
But at this stage their aim is to discourage the Dems from pushing this stuff through. If they threaten to shut down the hospitals, that would throw an incredible burden on the municipal hospitals and the government, who would have to pick up the slack or explain to the people why they weren’t getting any health care.
Later, if this tyrannical measure goes through, they can simply disobey, with the further threat of shutting down.
The Bishops won’t shut down the Catholic hospitals. They will likely reorganize into hospices, nursing homes or cancer treatment centers, none of which are required or expected to perform abortions.
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