Those of you who have been around for a while know my stance on the issue of abortion. It falls in the same column as the issue of murder – “don’t do it.” This isn’t a religious issue, despite how much the media (or the President) might want to play it off as such. This is a simple issue of whether or not the government should legalize genocide. The battle just became more difficult with Obama taking office and the Democrats securely holding both houses, so I was grateful when Prester Scott put out the call today to support, and made me aware of, Fight FOCA – an organized coalition dedicated to fighting the monstrocity that is the “Freedom Of Choice Act.” I’m going to shamelessly steal his assessment of the act:
FOCA, in the form in which it was filed in 2007, is a brief and sweeping bill that would eliminate, in one stroke, all federal, state and local laws and regulations that restrict or “discriminate against” abortion in any way. Among other things, this would:
- End the ban on partial-birth abortion (which is really infanticide on a fully-developed child who just hasn’t left the womb yet).
- Force taxpayers to fund abortion.
- Spit in the face of (what’s left of) the Tenth Amendment’s protection of State powers. If a bulldozer measure like this were passed to preserve clearly enumerated Constitutional protections, that would be one thing, but abortion is not one of them. Roe v. Wade was patent judicial activism.
- Eliminate parental-consent laws for minors seeking abortions. (If the States don’t matter, the rights of mere parents and families count even less.)
- Potentially, strike down public health regulations and medical licensing on the practice of abortion. So much for keeping abortion “safe.”
- Potentially, force medical personnel and/or hospitals that accept government-funded insurance (such as Medicaid) to perform abortions on demand. This is probably the most severe consequence. Doctors and nurses who don’t believe in abortion for religious or philosophical reasons could lose their licenses, or just find themselves practically unable to find employment. Catholic and other religious hospitals might have to close, all the charity work they do now to go undone. (What will this do to the economy, I wonder?)
President Obama told Planned Parenthood, “The first thing I’d do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing I’d do.” His record shows him to be arguably the most pro-abortion senator in the country, and he was infamously against Illinois’ Born Alive Infant Protection Act, a position which put him beyond pro-abortion and into pro-infanticide territory. His reasoning for opposing that act tottered somewhere between weak and absurd, to the point of directly stating that the inconvenience to doctors simply wasn’t outweighed by the fact human life was at risk. Now he has the opportunity to take his insanity to the national stage, having already slashed the regulations put in place by Bush (and Reagan, before Clinton had his way) to prevent our foreign aid money from being used to perform abortions.
Nancy Pelosi has also introduced a new expenditure in the montrous bailout plan being worked by Congress – an extra couple hundred million for “family planning” and contraceptives. She defends this by suggesting that children put an unnecessary burden on the goverment, and so by reducing births, they will reduce government costs, and stimulate the economy.
We are fighting an uphill battle here, and need to be on our toes at the very least until we can get some power back in 2010. Signing that petition would be a good start.