let the man speak for himself

Before you read this blog: Please know that I am not telling anyone how to vote. I believe and uphold that we all have the right to vote our conscience. The USCCB (US Conference of Catholic Bishops) has put forth a document called Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship available online for anyone interested in reading it.

The Church is involved in the political process but is not partisan. The Church cannot champion any candidate or party. Our cause is the defense of human life and dignity and the protection of the weak and vulnerable. - From the USCCB "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship"

Now to the video. Obama makes himself clear in this speech that the first thing he'll do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. He actually says, "The first thing I'll do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act." I did some reading, and this is what I found out:

What Does FOCA Say?

FOCA provides that “[i]t is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman.” Further, FOCA would specifically invalidate any "statute, ordinance, regulation, administrative order, decision, policy, practice, or other action" of any federal, state, or local government or governmental official (or any person acting under government authority) that would "deny or interfere with a woman's right to choose" abortion, or that would "discriminate against the exercise of the right . . . in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information." This single piece of legislation would apply to any federal or state law “enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or after the date of [its] enactment.”

What is the Legal Impact of FOCA?

FOCA establishes the right to abortion as a “fundamental right,” elevating it to the same status as the right to vote and the right to free speech. Critically, the U.S. Supreme Court has never (in Roe v. Wade or in any subsequent decision) defined abortion as a fundamental constitutional right. Thus, FOCA goes beyond any U.S. Supreme Court decision in enshrining unlimited abortion-on-demand into American law.

What is the Practical Impact of FOCA?

Among the federal and state laws that FOCA would nullify are:

• Waiting periods

• Parental consent and notification laws

• Requirements that licensed physicians perform abortions

• Bans on partial-birth abortion

• Bans on abortion after viability. Under FOCA, post-viability abortions are expressly permitted to protect the woman’s health. Within the context of abortion, “health” has been interpreted so broadly that FOCA would not actually proscribe any abortion before or after viability.

• Limits on public funding for elective abortions (thus, making American taxpayers fund a procedure that many find morally objectionable)

• Limits on the use of public facilities (such has public hospitals and medical schools at state universities) for abortions

• Legal protections for individual healthcare providers who decline to participate in abortions.
  

• Legal protections for religiously-affiliated hospitals who, while providing care to millions of poor and uninsured Americans, refuse to allow abortions within their facilities

I also found some disturbing information regarding physician freedom of conscience:

Notably, the most recent and pressing threat to freedom of conscience has come from within the healthcare profession itself. In November 2007, the Committee on Ethics of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) issued a policy statement entitled "The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Medicine." The controversial document provided that:

a. Pro-life physicians must refer for abortion: "Physicians…have the duty to refer patients in a timely manner to other providers if they do not feel they can in conscience provide the standard reproductive service that patients request."
b. Pro-life physicians should relocate to refer patients to nearby abortionists: "Providers with moral or religious objections should … practice in proximity to individuals who do not share their views…"
c. Patient autonomy trumps physician’s conscience: A physician may not exercise his or her right of conscience if that might "constitute an imposition of religious or moral beliefs on patients."
d. Conscience amounts only to a subjective feeling and not to a well-grounded moral or religious belief system or a well-established constitutional principle: "An appeal to conscience would express a sentiment such as 'If I were to do 'x,' I could not live with myself, I would hate myself, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night."

By the end of the year, the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG), which certifies obstetricians and gynecologists, joined the assault against physicians’ freedom of conscience. In issuing its 2008 Maintenance of Certification Bulletin, ABOG decreed that physicians may now lose their certification for "violat[ing] ABOG or ACOG rules and/or ethics principles…." Thus, refusing to comply with ACOG’s policy regarding referrals for abortion would endanger a physician’s ability to maintain his or her certification which, in turn, would put the physician’s hospital or staff privileges and ability to practice and earn a living at risk.

Thankfully, this imminent and invidious threat to freedom of conscience was immediately denounced and challenged by physicians, members of the Bush Administration (including Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt), the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, pro-family policy groups, and legal organizations like Americans United for Life (AUL). These groups and individuals are seeking to have ACOG’s policy statement rescinded and to have ABOG expressly affirm that physicians’ certifications will not be dependant on their willingness to violate their consciences by referring patients for abortions or other controversial, elective procedures.

I also googled Margaret Sanger (who Obama mentions at the end of his speech) and found that she was a proponent of eugenics who considered the unchecked multiplication of the "unfit" to be "the greatest present menace to civilization." (Margaret Sanger. "The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda", Birth Control Review, October 1921, page 5).

Yikes.

I think I am going to call it a night, and end with a quote from Obama from about 2o minutes into his speech that I agree with.

"I'm here because of a mother..."

Amen.