Obama administration may toss pro-life conscience protections

News Resources Tools Columns Documents ACI Group

Contenidos del sub-menu

Comments: 22

President Barack Obama

Washington D.C., Feb 27, 2009 / 06:10 pm (CNA).- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is preparing to rescind regulations which made explicit the existing legal protections for medical workers who object to cooperating in abortions. The preparations have led one Republican congressman to charge President Obama’s administration with trying to implement the Freedom of Choice act “incrementally.”

On Friday the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced that it was reviewing a proposal to lift the Department of Health and Human Service’s (HHS) regulation. The move is the first step toward reversing the policy.

After the OMB reviews the proposal, it will be published in the Federal Register for a 30-day public comment period, according to federal law.

An unnamed official told the Washington Post that the HHS is concerned the rule is written “so vaguely that some have argued it could limit family planning counseling and even potentially blood transfusions and end-of-life care.”

“We recognize and understand that some providers have objections about abortion, and we want to make sure that current law protects them,” the official said, explaining that the regulation could be lifted entirely or could be modified to make the protections more specific.

The regulation had been implemented in the last months of President George W. Bush’s administration.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has supported the regulation, citing in a Sept. 12 letter the “growing hostility on the part of some professional organizations and advocacy groups to rights of conscience in health care” and describing other “undisguised hostility to conscience rights.”

Upon hearing of the Obama administration’s intention to rescind the regulations, NARAL Pro-Choice America president Nancy Keenan praised the move, calling it a “victory for women.”

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) on Friday issued a statement critical of the review of the regulation, characterizing it as the third recent action Democrats have taken to weaken rules that are meant “to safeguard the sanctity of human life.”

“It is an action that will hurt faith-based health providers and hospitals throughout our nation who are committed to caring for Americans at this critical time,” he argued. “It will also inevitably result in more abortions being performed nationwide.”

Referring to the Freedom of Choice Act, a package of pro-abortion “rights” legislation, Rep. Boehner argued that the Obama administration is “intent on enacting FOCA incrementally – step by tragic step – through low-key legislative maneuvers and executive orders.”

Chris Smith (R-NJ) also expressed his concern over patients being affected by the possible elimination of the regulations. “Women deserve to have the option to choose doctors who reflect their views on the sanctity of human life,” he said. “They will lose that freedom if pro-life health care professionals are driven from the medical field.

“Without long-standing ‘conscience protection’ the extremist abortion lobby will eventually turn every ob-gyn into an abortionist,” Smith claimed.

“To see where they are trying to take us, look no further than the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists so-called Ethics Opinion that says all ob-gyns should make referrals for abortion, and those who won’t do abortions should relocate in close proximity to an abortionist. The nation is under siege by pro-abortion radicals who are attacking the fundamental right of conscience, and are attempting to impose their will through the Obama administration. It is ironic that they like to be called pro-choice, instead of pro-abortion, but that their preference for ‘choice’ refers only to people who support the killing of unborn children,” Smith remarked.

Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, also released a critical statement on Friday.

Rescinding the regulation would be a “huge blow” to religious freedom and First Amendment rights, he argued.

Overturning the regulation would “open the door” to discrimination against health care workers who do not want to be complicit in abortion or “other controversial practices,” Perkins added. He said the lack of regulations has resulted in “confusion and a lack of awareness” within the health care community despite long-standing conscience protection laws.

“President Obama's intention to change the language of these protections would result in the government becoming the conscience and not the individual. It is a person's right to exercise their moral judgment, not the government's to decide it for them,” Perkins stated.

Comments: 22

Subscriber comments:

Published by: Sandy
Quakertown. PA 03/26/2009 06:17 PM EST

Healthcare workers paid for their education. They knew what they wanted to accomplish with their profession. Government has too much say about the individual's conscience. That is meddling in private business. Slavery has ended in America. We are not going back that way.

Published by: Rose
Salt Lake City, UT 03/03/2009 05:56 PM EST

John Powell - I hope to God that Obama doesn't impose some sort of restriction or conversely, mandate, on something you believe strongly about. For instance, maybe he'll say that it's okay for your neighbor to perform a retroactive abortion on your child because said child bothers him. Belief in a higher, untouchable, immovable and incorruptible entity to guide us in matters of morals - no not religion but how to act like a decent human being - is the only hope we have. As a nurse married to a physician, this horrifies me. God Bless YOU, John.

Published by: RCharles
Easton PA 03/03/2009 05:44 PM EST

Ron Pichlik: "a person should, and must have the right to refuse to partipate in performing or assisting in an abortion."
If someone's religion forbids them from driving a bus, they cannot take a job that requires driving a bus. If they take that job and refuse to drive a bus they can and should be terminated. If someone does not want to participate in abortion procedures DON'T TAKE THE JOB!.

Also, it is your opinion that a woman who has an abortion is murdering anyone. If Nature can discard viable embryos by the millions it can't be that important to save any one individual embryo.

Best

RCharles

Published by: RCharles
Easton PA 03/03/2009 05:38 PM EST

Ron Pichlik "This is faulty logic; something may be legal without being ethical."
1. In a Democracy, if something is legal it means anyone meeting the requirements can do it. You can vote at 21; drive at 16 (more or less), etc. If someone believes doing something is unethical, clearly they shouldn't do it. But they cannot criticize, condemn or stop others from doing what is legal.

2. In the middle ages the church held it was a sin to dissect a human body; today there are catholic hospitals doing surgery. Clearly the church was wrong about dissecting bodies.

3. The church held that the Sun revolved around the earth and threatened Galileo with torture and death when he published the sun-centric view of the solar system. The church forced Galileo to recant the truth and then held him in house arrest for the rest of his life. Two hundred years later the church admitted Galileo was right. The Church was wrong about the solar system.

4. Nature aborts half of all fertilized human eggs; they are discarded for whatever reasons. Since "god" created Nature these are "god approved" abortions. There is no logical reason for man to have a stricter rule. The church is wrong about abortions and will admit it in another few hundred years.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." George Bernard Shaw

I'm just being unreasonable.

Published by: Ron Pichlik
Battle Creek, MI USA 03/02/2009 09:16 PM EST

To Pam Stone: Your remakrs are entirely off-point. A pound of hamburger is just that a pound of hamburger. To those who believe that life begins at conception performing an abortion is murder of a human being. If you are in a glib way attempting to equate the murder of over 50 million via abortion with the butchering of a cow than you really have gone off the rails; human beings were created in the image of their creator, a cow wasn't.

To RCharles: The problem with your observations is that you are elevating the so-called "right" of a woman to murder her child over the right of someone's conscience to not participate in what they believe to be murder. That is inappropriate. The state can, and should not, reign supreme over a person's conscience. Your argument is essentially that if something is legal than it must be ethical and one must perform that act upon request. This is faulty logic; something may be legal without being ethical. Case in point, at one time our supreme court stated that slavery was legal; yet, even with the stamp of "legality" upon it many people knew that slavery was still immoral and unethical. The same is true for this issue; the court has said it is legal, that does not make it moral or ethical, and a person should, and must have the right to refuse to partipate in performing or assisting in an abortion.

Published by: RCharles
Easton PA 03/02/2009 09:03 PM EST

ANTHONY CIARCIA "THANK GOD FOR OUR BISHOP MARTINO OF THE DIOCESE OF SCRANTON WHO HAD THE COURAGE TO STAND UP FOR THE TRUTH."
PA Catholics voted overwhelmingly for President Obama. They ignored the abusive demands of Martino to vote his way. Let me also note that 60% of catholic students in catholic universities think abortion should be legal.
RCG

Published by: Barbara Keohane
Bayonne, NJ 07002 03/02/2009 02:22 PM EST

It is very disconcerting to me that Congress and Mr. Obama are concerned about the people at Gitmo, but have no concern for the life of the unborn and people in the medical profession, who are citizens of this great country, that may have objections to performing abortions. Obviously, the only rights we have as citizens are the rights that Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party think we should have.

Published by: woodrow
Hudson, OH USA 03/02/2009 08:28 AM EST

...so the "annointed one," the 21st Century "Abe Lincoln/FDR," shows his colors for "change."

Where are anyone's "rights," when the right to a life does not exist, and a culture of death infects government?

Published by: BC Davies
Britain 02/28/2009 05:38 PM EST

Is it the Chinese who say if you want to cook a frog, you don't throw him into hot water 'cos he will leap out; you put him in cold water and slowly turn up the heat. You kill him... “incrementally". For evil to triumph, it's enough for good persons to do nothing

Published by: Francis Xavier T
Washington, D.C. 02/28/2009 04:53 PM EST

Have you talked your Catholic high school children yet? Do you know how many percents of your Catholic high school children endorse President Obama and pro-choice? Do you know how many bishops and priests voted for President Obama and lead 54% Catholics doing the same? Did you know that some of the Catholic bishops tell us to vote for the common goods instead of one single abortion issue? Do you know that if we don't confront abortion as one single issue and one single issue alone of murder, we will never win the battle?

Published by: Dale Howell
Sacramento CA 02/28/2009 03:43 PM EST

It becomes more and more evident that the evil one intends to use Mr. Obama and his administration to murder as many innocent human beings as possible. This attack on conscience is in reality two-pronged, being against both the sacredness of life, given only by God, and the eternal salvation of man. I have no doubt that it will end in the open and violent persecution of the Church.

Let us prepare.

Published by: Ricky Vines
Washington, D.C. 02/28/2009 10:54 AM EST

He's testing the waters. If pro-life support is found asleep at the wheel then he'll sneak the revision in. If the outcry is loud, fast and decisive then he'll back off momentarily. It depends on how exhausted or confused the pro-life support is at the moment.

Published by: David Becker
Rochester, MI USA 02/28/2009 08:50 AM EST

I am not particularly anti-abortion (or pro), and am rather areligious, but I recognize that abortion is an immoral abomination to many of my fellow Americans and I deeply respect that point of view. The Obama action is anti-American in its deepest meaning. It forces immoral actions on people in a land which used to pride itself on individual choice in such matters. Leftist are simple bullies, but they are now powerful ones. We had better get used to it, for this is only a start.

Published by: John Powell
Decatur GA USA 02/27/2009 08:28 PM EST

I support the President on this rule change. Religion has had a disproportionate influence on policy for years, under his dimwit predecessor.

Published by: Dorothy Madigan
Naalehu, HI USA 02/27/2009 07:55 PM EST

This should not be allowed to happen. The FOCA bill is intended to eliminate all protections for unborn children no matter at what stage of gestation, and to force those who believe it to be killing of innocent life out of the medical professions. It will also force the Catholic bishops to close Catholic hospitals which refuse to allow abortions. It must be stopped. As these individual executive decisions are made, FOCA will be passed without Congressional approval. Dirty pool. And they know it.

Published by: DWG
Rathdrum, ID 02/27/2009 07:49 PM EST

A Vote for OBAMA was a Vote for Abortion.

Another step toward an OBAMANATION.

Published by: ANTHONY CIARCIA
PENNSYLVANIA,USA 02/27/2009 07:46 PM EST

THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF A SYSTEMATIC AND DELIBERATE EFFORT TO FULFILL PROMISES TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD ORGANIZATIONS IN HIS YOU-TUBE 23:49 SEC. PRESENTATION ON 7/17/07. IF THE CATHOLIC BISHOP'S ORGANIZATION WEREN'T COWARDLY AND SUPPORTED THE TEACHING OF THE ROMAN CHURCH, THEY WOULD HAVE FORMED A SOLID CONSENSUS AND A FOUNDATION WHICH WOULD HAVE GREATLY ASSISTED VOTERS TO INFLUENCE THE OUTCOME OF THE ELECTION. THANK GOD FOR OUR BISHOP MARTINO OF THE DIOCESE OF SCRANTON WHO HAD THE COURAGE TO STAND UP FOR THE TRUTH. TOO BAD MANY OF HIS FELLOW BISHOPS, PRIESTS, AND NUNS DIDN'T FOLLOW HIS EXAMPLE. IT IS NO WONDER THAT SO CALLED "CATHOLIC UNIVERSITIES" FAILED TO PRESENT CONCRETE CATHOLIC TEACHINGS TO ASSIST THOSE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN TO MAKE SOUND MORAL DECISIONS WHEN THEY CAST THEIR VOTE.

Published by: Will Rettic
Fort Wayne, IN 02/27/2009 07:41 PM EST

It is becoming clear that President Obama is a tyrant who will ruin this country.

Published by: Ron Pichlik
Battle Creek, MI USA 02/27/2009 07:34 PM EST

These moves should of course not come as any surprise. This administration barely had its' boxes unpacked when it reversed the Mexico City policy. The ultimate goal would appear to be to remove and rescind every modest restriction on abortion that exists. They want to eliminate the individual and have medical providers do what they are told to do. There's a word for governments that seek to eliminate the individual as well as his/her conscience and have the state reign supreme; they are called totalitarian regimes. Today we may be talking about medical care providers who knows which group or profession we will be talking about tomorrow. In our society the government is suppose to be subservient to the people; indeed according to our founding fathers it only exists at the will of the people. This president stated he wanted to find common ground with pro-life americans; I'm still waiting to see where he is going to find common ground. Rather than lying to us as though we were gullible idiots I'd at least have more respect for this president if he just came out and said "guess what, I won the election and my policies and decisions are going to favor and support those who got me elected." I couldn't disagree with him more, but at least I'd say well at least he's not lying to me. All we can do is pray for the conversion of the hearts and minds of all who condone or support abortion, especially our leaders and the president.

Published by: Pam Stone
USA 02/27/2009 07:15 PM EST

If I'm a vegetarian and a grocery cashier, am I protected if I refuse to scan meat at the checkout? No, my boss would have a word or two with me. The same should apply to health care workers.

Published by: RCharles
Easton PA 02/27/2009 07:09 PM EST

Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, says "It is a person's right to exercise their moral judgment, not the government's to decide it for them,”
But the bush diretive being overturned is exactly that, the government enforcing a religious preference when all women legally have the right to choose an abortion; it is a woman's right to choose, not the medical profession. There was overwhelming opposition in the medical profession to the bush directive and President Obama is fulfilling the public's choice when he was elected.
RCG

Published by: Joy Jasko
San Francisco, CA USA 02/27/2009 06:22 PM EST

Bishop Williamson's holocaust denial and "pro-choice"advocates have much in common, it seems to me. One denied the death of millions during WWII, the other group ignores the current holocaust of aborted babies that they are supporting in their "freedom"laws and policies.

Clarity of mind and heart and change of wills are to be prayed for!

ADD A COMMENT (Your e-mail will NOT be published):


NAME:
CITY/STATE/COUNTRY:
EMAIL:
COMMENT:

PLEASE ENTER THE SECURITY CODE DISPLAYED ABOVE:
Chars:

* Thanks for your comments. The number of messages that can be online is limited. Length should not exceed 1500 characters. CNA reserves the right to edit messages for content and tone. Comments and opinions expressed by users do not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of CNA. CNA will not publish comments with abusive language, insults or links to other pages.

ADVERTISING
CNA does not necessarily endorse these advertisers. Please proceed with discretion. If you feel that a website announced has inappropriate or offensive content, please send it by e-mail to catholicna@catholicna.com