Free Republic

WASHINGTON (October 10, 2012) -- On October 9, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) disseminated an email alert, urging its supporters nationwide to lobby ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz, who will moderate the October 11 debate between Vice President Joe Biden and the Republican nominee for vice president, Congressman Paul Ryan. In the alert, Jennifer Dalven, who is the director of the ACLU "Reproductive Freedom Project," complained that the abortion issue did not come up during the first presidential debate on October 3. She asked readers to send an email to Raddatz to urge that she press for answers "straight...

In January 2009 Barack Obama and his Marxist Congress had a choice. They could ram through the Freedom Of Choice Act (FOCA) appeasing the abortion hungry Left or let it sit while they rammed through “more important items” like Obamacare and Card Check to appease their union masters. Their sense of the situation told them they probably couldn’t do both. Now after a series of stinging defeats on Card Check and the ever dimming chances of Obamacare actually happening, Obama has run back to safe territory. He has off FOCA’s Conscious Clause. Obviously Obama’s political handlers have concluded there are...

Reform: If Massachusetts is any guide, the passage of ObamaCare is almost certain to increase demand and worsen the shortage of doctors. Access to health care doesn't mean much if there's no doctor to provide it.Suppose health care reform passes and all are insured, by force or otherwise. The U.S. will be short 124,400 front-line physicians by 2025, according to the Association of Medical Colleges. That does not include the 15,585 new primary-care providers the administration plan is estimated to require. The Massachusetts reforms enacted in 2006, designed to provide universal coverage, provide an insight into what we might expect...

The immensity of the nation’s Catholic healthcare system could add clout for Catholic bishops as they advance their opposition to healthcare reform as proposed now. The Catholic Church demonstrated its legislative influence this year when it threatened to close Catholic hospitals if the Freedom of Choice Act passed, which effectively scuttled plans to introduce the legislation. The legislation would have defined abortion as a “fundamental right” and nullified conscience protections for healthcare providers. The Catholic health network includes 624 hospitals, 499 long-term nursing facilities, and 41 hospices nationwide, including 11 of the nation’s largest healthcare systems, according to the Catholic...

The nation’s Catholic bishops have told Congress that they oppose H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, as it currently stands, because the health-care reform bill would mandate funding and insurance coverage for abortion. In an August 11 letter to members of the House of Representatives, Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the pro-life committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (U.S.C.C.B.), told lawmakers that health-care reform must “respect human life and rights of conscience in the context of abortion.” “Much-needed reform must not become a vehicle for promoting an ‘abortion rights’ agenda or reversing longstanding policies against federal funding...

Roman Catholic leaders are stepping up their fight against the Obama administration’s healthcare plans, urging their faithful nationwide to contact legislators to protest abortion provisions in Democratic bills. Catholics who attended Mass Sunday in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, for example, received weekly bulletins with a call to action from Cardinal Justin Rigali, head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' pro-life committee. The archdiocese, one of the largest in the nation, serves 1.45 million Catholics. “While this legislation is still in draft form, the request for action at the local level is imperative,” the cardinal wrote. “[W]e must take...

Catholic Christians never fit in with the “the religious right.” I maintain it is because some of the otherwise conservative or “neo-conservative” political positions which came along with the package did not comport with Catholic Social thought. Too often there was a failure to focus on the foundation of the entire Catholic Social vision, the dignity of every human life, and then operate in accordance with a hierarchy of values. However, what is becoming clear is that what is called “liberal” or “progressive” in contemporary political parlance is repugnant. It embraces the culture of death in its acceptance of intrinsic...

Health Care: Lost in the kerfuffle about a pro-choice president being honored at the University of Notre Dame was the damage the Freedom of Choice Act might do to the nation's health care.Specifically, how many Catholic hospitals will close and how many Catholic doctors will quit if it becomes law? According to the Catholic Health Association, Catholic institutions make up 13% of the nation's nearly 5,000 hospitals, and employ more than 600,000 people. CHA says one of every six Americans hospitalized in the U.S. are cared for in a Catholic hospital. A lot of federal funds flow through the nation's...

Last fall there was great concern among the United States Bishops about the possible passage of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) and its threat to Catholic health care. President Obama had promised to sign FOCA during the campaign. If passed in the form it was most recently proposed, FOCA would have displaced current conscience legislation that protects Catholic hospitals from being forced to provide abortions. Some U.S. bishops indicated that passage of FOCA could result in the closure of Catholic hospitals. FOCA was not passed, but the Obama administration has moved ahead with the rescission of the conscience regulations...

In the late afternoon of July 1o, President Obama met privately with Pope Benedict XVI for just over 30 minutes. According to official Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi, S.J., "The president explicitly expressed his commitment to reducing the numbers of abortions and to listen to the church's concern on moral issues." On July 13 in a Senate committee hearing, Sen. Barbara Mikulski was forced to admit under persistent questioning by Sen. Orrin Hatch that the new health-care bill includes abortion coverage. Planned Parenthood's Guttmacher Institute estimates government funding of abortion increases abortion by 20 to 35 percent. There were 1,206,200...

Pro-life groups and lawmakers are continuing to raise the alarm over the healthcare reform package President Obama is aggressively pushing through both the House and the Senate. The groups are urging Americans to oppose the healthcare overhaul, as pro-abortion lawmakers are insisting that abortion must be included in the basic healthcare package that all public and private insurers will eventually be required to cover. Leading pro-life Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) at a Washington press conference today questioned: "Why the rush to enact Mr. Obama's exceedingly expensive, complex and potentially ruinous health care restructuring plan without the benefit of comprehensive hearings...

OBAMA AND DISHONOR AT NOTRE DAME BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA is an avowed socialist, openly going about applying marxist dogma and principle to our free market and our nation as a whole. Now, at the commencment exercises at Notre Dame, Barack Hussein Obama was awarded an honorary law degree. The administration of the Catholic school indicated they had invited him there in a tradition of engagment and in the spirit of fair play letting his voice as President be heard. Sounds reasonable...but as with all things political there is great risk of how it sounds and how it plays out...

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) told a gathering of pro-abortion activists that the Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations put in place by the Bush administration to protect medical professionals who work in institutions that receive federal funding and morally oppose certain practices, such as abortion, is “short-sighted” and should be rescinded by President Obama.

Who thinks that Obama will rename FOCA as the "Abortion Reduction Act", while not changing the body of the legislation? Who thinks that Rick Warren, the Catholic left, media etc. will swoon about Obama being pro-life after the legislation is renamed as identified above?

Last night during Obama's press conference Ed Henry of CNN asked an excellent question. Here is the text of the question and Barack Obama's response: CNN's Ed Henry: Thank you, Mr. President. In a couple of weeks, you're going to be giving the commencement at Notre Dame. And, as you know, this has caused a lot of controversy among Catholics who are opposed to your position on abortion. As a candidate, you vowed that one of the very things you wanted to do was sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which, as you know, would eliminate federal, state and...

WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday his position on abortion rights has been consistent but the Freedom of Choice Act is not among his top priorities. At his third prime-time news conference since assuming office 100 days ago, Obama said people on both sides of the issue must recognize abortion is both a moral and an ethical issue. He said people on the pro-choice side are mistaken when they say abortion is merely "about women's freedom" without recognizing any other considerations. "I'm pro-choice because I don't think women take that issue casually," he said. "Women...

By an overwhelming 87/13 Barack Obama is losing his battle to force FOCA on America The news about America’s feelings toward continuing the conscience clause in contacts between the government and medical professionals is good for the pro life community. It is a stunning rebuke for the pro abortion forces in the Obama Administration. If average Americans were asked to vote on FOCA today, the pro abortion Democrats would be thoroughly crushed. A March 23-25 survey conducted by The Polling Company revealed there is an overwhelming sentiment in favor of continuing the conscience clause which protects those who recognize doing...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Dr. John T. Bruchalski would rather close the doors of his highly successful Fairfax, Va., medical practice than violate his conscience if he is forced to offer services that violate the basic tenets of his Catholic faith. A pro-life obstetrician and gynecologist whose Tepeyac Family Center delivered 629 babies in 2008, Bruchalski is concerned that a Department of Health and Human Services proposal to rescind a conscience protection regulation for health care workers would force him to perform abortions or, at the very least, refer patients to physicians who offer the procedure. Bruchalski told Catholic News Service...

The showdown over the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is coming. The Senate has rejected a conscience clause. Now Catholic hospitals can be forced to commit abortions. Democrats are caught between their pro-death supporters’ demands and attacking the Catholic Church. They will opt for the latter. FOCA will force Catholic bishops to choose between federal money and mortal sin, and saying “No!” to murders of convenience by closing their hospitals. They will opt for the latter. Aided by America’s Catholics, pro abortionists elected the most pro death president in history. Encouraged by this support Democrats are willing to confront Catholic...

Tonight at 9 pm ET on The Andrea Shea King Show, we'll talk with a pro-life ob-gyn who says Obama intends to force physicians to perform abortions. The Obama Administration is quietly moving to test Catholic institutions with plans to rescind the US Department of Health and Human Service’s Conscience regulation – a regulation that protects healthcare workers against pressure or intimidation to perform medical procedures that go against their conscience such as abortion or euthanasia. “The Notre Dame debate surrounding President Obama’s invitation to deliver the commencement address is only the tip of the iceberg for those in...