Although the Freedom of Choice Act has not even been introduced to the 111th Congress, it has drawn significant attention from the pro-life community. Every pro-life activist in this country knows that if the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is introduced, it or a similar version of the bill will only be stopped with a filibuster. And since Republican Senators Snow, Specter and Collins like to ally themselves with left-wing politicians, a filibuster is beginning to seem very unlikely.
One would think that pro-abortion advocates would be satisfied with legislation from the Supreme Court. However, the left is organizing itself to make the most sweeping anti-life legislation this country has ever seen under the misleading title of Freedom of Choice Act.
Presently, abortion is, in a certain sense, a choice on the federal level. If a woman wants to have an abortion, the federal government says go ahead but take care of it yourself. But FOCA is a mandate of support for abortion from the federal government. Tax-payers will now be forced to pay for abortions with their own hard-earned money. I always thought that freedom of choice meant you did not have to categorically give support to a decision you disagreed with. Then again, I am old-fashioned.
But this bill gets even more dangerous. Interference is eliminated. This has the potential to prevent parents from counseling minors as to what is the best decision to make, even though the purpose of parents is to help children make good decisions. Moreover, the government would not even be able to make informed consent laws. If neither parents nor the government can help an individual decide whether or not to have an abortion, who is supposed to help the woman make the right decision?
Yet this bill gets even worse. Currently, physicians and hospitals are not required to conduct abortions if they have a conscientious objection. However, FOCA aims at eliminating this also. Catholic hospitals and physicians may be forced to perform abortions even though Canon Law clearly states that procuring a successful abortion results in automatic excommunication.
Apparently, if you are a pregnant woman, you have every right to abort your child and every right to force someone to help you do it. But if you are a faithful Catholic, you do not have the right to follow your conscience and spare the child.
Finally, the bill allows for partial-birth abortion to be allowed once again.
If you thought this bill could not get any worse, you were wrong. Partial-birth abortion borders on infanticide. This could lead to the outright murder of children who are in fact born. For those who think this is merely a joke and has no possibility of happening, I would like to inform them that President Obama, while serving in the Illinois state legislature, effectively voted in favor of infanticide. Oddly enough, even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voted against this bill in the United States Senate.
If there was ever a time for pro-life activists to panic, it is now. FOCA is the single most comprehensive, pro-abortion legislation this country might ever see. It could stick a dagger in the very heart of the pro-life movement.
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