|
Today's News & Views
April 21, 2009
Your Help Is Needed! And
Another Look at the Attack on Conscience
Part Two of Two
There are a number of ongoing
controversies that require your attention. In
Part One we talked about Obama's
plan To
Impose
Sweeping Abortion Mandates In "Health Care Reform." Be sure
to go
http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/issues/alert/?alertid=13157881&type=CO
to learn how your voice can be heard.
Likewise, the barrage of
criticism continues against the decision by the University
of Notre Dame to invite pro-abortion President Barack Obama
to give the Commencement Address and receive a honorary
Doctor of Laws degree. You can still do your part by
contacting Fr. John Jenkins, the President, to register your
protest.
You can call Fr. Jenkins at
574.631.3903 or 574.631.5000.
You can email Fr. Jenkins at
President@nd.edu
Or to you
can write him at:
Reverend John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
Office of the President
400 Main Building
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Last weekend the
Washington Times' Julia Duin wrote a thoughtful column that
ran under the headline, " Pro-life
doctors face 'consequences.'" She was referring, of course,
to the Obama Administration's determination to make life as
miserable as possible for pro-life physicians who refuse to
be a party to abortions.
The Administration is in
the process of rescinding a regulation that enforces federal
laws protecting the conscience rights of doctors and health
care providers. Health care providers are increasingly being
pressured to violate their moral convictions with regards to
abortion.
The regulations are based
on underlying federal conscience protection laws that
Congress has enacted, including the 1973 "Church
Amendments," the 1996 Public Health Service Act amendment,
and the "Hyde-Weldon amendment," which was first added to a
funding bill in 2004. These underlying protective laws could
be next.
So let me make just two
quick points.
First, Duin cites a poll
that found that "82 percent of 2,865 Christian medical
personnel said they were 'very' or 'somewhat' likely to
limit the scope of their medical practice if they had to
perform actions against their pro-life beliefs." And it's
not hypothetical. Thirty-nine percent "said
they already had experienced discrimination because of their
beliefs. For example, one doctor said that during her
medical residency, she refused to assist in a late-term
abortion of a Down syndrome child and was loudly and
thoroughly berated in front of her colleagues by the
attending physician."
Second, students who
might well choose obstetrics are reluctant to do so. As one
said to Duin, "I do not want to go through my residency
having to wake up every morning wondering if I will have to
go head to head with other physicians on this."
As we learn day in and
day out, for "pro-choicers" there is only one choice: the
choice for death.
Editor's note. If you
haven't watched and listened to the powerful new pro-life
song, "My Chance," please visit.
www.jtmusic.net
Part One
|
|
