Catholic Bishops Set To Challenge Obama On Abortion-Rights Policy, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 19 Nov 2008 - 9:00 PDT

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Although "Catholic bishops welcome working with the incoming Obama administration on immigration and health care reform, they stoutly oppose President-elect Barack Obama's championing" of the Freedom of Choice Act to codify abortion rights, Michael McManus -- a syndicated columnist and president and co-founder of Marriage Savers -- writes in a Washington Times opinion piece. According to McManus, bishops have said FOCA would be "'more radical than the 1973 Supreme Court decision,' Roe v. Wade, legalizing abortion."

According to a statement issued by Chicago Cardinal Francis George during last week's U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops General Assembly, "FOCA would coerce all Americans into subsidizing and promoting abortion with their tax dollars. Parental notification and informed consent precautions would be outlawed, as would be laws banning procedures such as partial-birth abortion and protecting infants born alive after a failed abortion. The Hyde Amendment restricting the federal funding of abortions would be abrogated. FOCA would have lethal consequences for prenatal human life."

McManus writes that as a result of rulings limiting abortion rights -- such as parental notification laws in 32 states -- abortions among teenagers fell from 461,000 in 1979 to 250,000 in 1999. However, McManus writes that if Congress were to pass FOCA, abortion limits, including the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, "would be brushed aside." According to McManus, what "has alarmed Catholic bishops" is that Obama during the campaign told the Planned Parenthood Federation of America that signing FOCA would be the "first thing" he would do as president. McManus adds that "what has reduced the number of abortions ... are the very changes in state laws that would be wiped out by FOCA." Although Obama during the campaign said he is committed to reducing the need for abortions, "[a]bortions would only increase if he signs the legislation into law," McManus says. In addition, "Catholic bishops believe the election was decided by the deteriorating economy," rather than Obama's position on abortion rights, he writes. According to George's statement from the bishops' meeting, if Obama misinterprets the election "as a referendum on abortion, the unity desired by the president-elect will be impossible to achieve." McManus concludes, "Barack Obama has been warned" (McManus, Washington Times, 11/16).

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