Congress should reaffirm the principle that government “should not force anyone to stop offering or covering much-needed legitimate health care” because of a conscientious objection to abortion or other procedures, said Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, O.F.M.Cap., of Boston and Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore. In a letter on Feb. 13 to the House of Representatives, the bishops, who chair the Committee on Pro-Life Activities and the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, urged legislators to support and co-sponsor the Health Care Conscience Rights Act (HR 940). “It is increasingly obvious that Congress needs to act to protect conscientious objection to the taking of innocent human life,” wrote Cardinal O’Malley and Archbishop Lori. “Recently California’s Department of Managed Health Care began demanding that all health plans under its jurisdiction include elective abortions, including late-term abortions. This mandate has no exemption for religious or moral objections, and is being enforced against religious universities, schools and even churches.”
Acts of Conscience
Show Comments ()
1
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Henry George
9 years 2 months ago
This may seem extreme but why don't all the Bishops and the Pope ask all Catholics to stop paying taxes
until the abortions of healthy babies is no longer a public right. Excommunicate those politicians who
do not actively oppose abortions but instead sign bills allowing/expanding access to abortions.
Are we not morally cooperating when our tax monies go to support Police Protections for Abortion Mills ?
Isn't the Politician morally cooperating, if indeed not, actively initiating more abortions by making it easier
to have abortions ?
Why do we take such moral umbrage that our pooled insurance money might be spent on abortions
when 1,000,000 legalized deaths take place each year and the Church ask little of us save the occasional
public protest on the Saturday closest to the Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade ?
The latest from america
In North Carolina, where abortion has been restricted to up to 12 weeks since the repeal of Roe v. Wade, maternity home services may prove vital for many young women who might otherwise be choosing to end their pregnancies.
A “chosen family” has its benefits, but it can also be a way of avoiding the accountability and personal growth found in long-term, committed, familial bonds.
The March of the Living memorial march at Auschwitz on Holocaust Remembrance Day took place amid the backdrop of pro-Palestinian protests and the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
The church helped me heal after my miscarriage. That’s what every grieving mother deserves.