06:03 am  |  WASHINGTON D.C., Jul 30, 2010 (CNA).- On Thursday Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) were scheduled to introduce legislation which would establish a permanent government-wide prohibition on taxpayer funding for abortion. Pro-life leaders praised the comprehensiveness of the proposal.

The legislation, titled the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” also codifies conscience protections for health care providers who do not want to participate in an abortion.

At present, many funding restrictions such as the Hyde Amendment to the Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill must be re-approved by Congress each year. It is also uncertain whether President Barack Obama’s executive order which restricts abortion funds in the 2010 health care legislation will be effective.

12:16 am  |  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Jul 30, 2010 (CNA).- The sound of drums boomed in the background as Sr. Kateri Mitchell spoke to CNA on Wednesday about the opening of the 71st Annual Tekakwitha Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She described the gathering of nearly 800 Native Americans from around the country as an opportunity for “evangelization” among the tribes.

Sr. Kateri, who is executive director of the conference and is of the Mohawk tribe, also noted that the event is intended to renew efforts in prayer for the canonization cause of the conference's patroness, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.

“The vision and the purpose of the conference is that of evangelization among the Native American Catholics and also to promote the canonization of our patroness Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha,” Sr. Kateri said,  adding that the event also gathers “people together to learn about one another's cultures because we have so many tribes throughout the country – over 500 tribes – and there are Catholics in many of the tribes.”

07:14 pm  |  WASHINGTON D.C., Jul 29, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News).- After reports recently surfaced that some of the new federally-funded high risk pool insurance programs in states across the U.S. were covering elective abortion, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a statement today, prohibiting the plans from covering the procedure.

The insurance pool programs for high-risk patients are part of a $5 billion federal funding program set up under the Affordable Health Care Act that was signed into law this March.

When states began to roll out their plans for the federal funds, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) investigated plans in Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Maryland, all of which the pro-life group accused of funding abortion. Following the passage of the health care overhaul in March, President Obama signed an executive order which purported to ban federal funding of abortion.

05:27 pm  |  CHAMPAIGN, ILL., Jul 29, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News).- A professor who was recently fired for explaining the Catholic teaching on homosexuality will be reinstated, according to the University of Illinois. Dr. Kenneth Howell's position at the school was terminated at the end of the Spring Semester this year after teaching in a class on Catholicism that the Church believes homosexual behavior violates natural law.

A Thursday letter from the University of Illinois Office of University Counsel told Howell’s lawyers at the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) that “The School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics will be contacting Dr. Howell to offer him the opportunity to teach Religion 127, Introduction to Catholicism, on a visiting instructional appointment at the University of Illinois, for the fall 2010 semester. Dr. Howell will be appointed and paid by the University for this adjunct teaching assignment.”

Howell had been teaching at the university since 2001 and consistently gained high approval ratings on student evaluations. In a class on Catholicism last spring, he followed up a classroom discussion with an e-mail contrasting the ways in which utilitarianism and natural law theory would each determine the morality of homosexual conduct.