I get that last night’s debate topics were about taxes and economy and health care. I guess that’s why I don’t get why abortion was the elephant on the stage. Unmentioned, it was as if the biggest issue in the nation were a non issue and the clear winner of the debate would be the …
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, is getting a lot of flak from conservatives because he voted with the liberal members of the Court in the ruling to uphold the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which allows it to stand and mandates individuals to hold health insurance of be fined if they do not. …
I’m not sure anyone thought it would fail. Who in their right minds would defeat a bill that banned abortions based on sex? Even those supporting abortion are horrified by things like China and its one-child policy, on nations that kill babies because they are girls. But not here on our soil. Today the Prenatal …
Abby Johnson‘s lawsuit against a Planned Parenthood in Texas has been made public at the same time President Obama pulled Texas funding until it funds Planned Parenthood. The irony is playing out on a national stage.
It’s a dichotomy of defense in Texas as Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood worker who walked away and became a pro-life spokesperson and activist joined with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), who filed a suit on behalf of her, alleging that Planned Parenthood “knowingly committed Medicaid fraud from 2007 to 2009 by improperly seeking reimbursements from the Texas Women’s Health Program (WHP) for products and services not reimbursable by that program.” The suit was filed in 2009 under a federal law “that allows ‘whistleblowers’ with inside information to expose fraudulent billing by government contractors. By law, such cases must initially be filed under seal and may not be made public while federal and state governments decide whether to join the case,” according to the ADF. You can read the entire case here in PDF.
However, the timing of the public release of this case is ironic because it comes as Texas is battling the Obama Administration on the same fund Johnson’s case says Planned Parenthood misused.
If you’re a pro-lifer who has been in this movement for any amount of time you’ve likely grown to respect the Catholic church’s stand on abortion. You may not agree with all their beliefs, but you can’t deny they’ve been a consistent voice for life over this past century.
Currently Catholic leaders are fighting an oppressive requirement from the Department of Health and Human Services, which would force Catholic schools, hospitals and other organizations to provide health insurance to their employees which includes sterilization, coverage for abortion inducing drugs, and subsidized contraception. This requirement backs them into a corner, forcing them to comply and go against their core convictions and religious beliefs or suffer grave consequences. (Read yesterday’s story about this for more detail)
Thankfully many bishops are taking a stand. A version of the same letter written by various bishops of was read in congregations across the country last week declaring they will not comply with this policy. In an online article from “Catholic Online,” Deacon Keith Fournier references a recent address the Pope gave in which he praised America’s founders for their commitment to religious freedom and their belief that Judeo-Christian moral teachings are essential to shaping citizens and democratic institutions. The Pope then warned that the heritage of religious freedoms faces “grave threats” from the “radical secularism” of political and cultural opinion leaders who are “increasingly hostile to Christianity.”
Choice by its nature implies that each American is granted individual liberty to act according to conscience. These rights are consistently protected by the laws and the Supreme Court itself, with the only real exceptions being when someone’s rights infringe upon another’s. The classic example we discuss in civics classes is a variation of this: I have the right to free speech but that right doesn’t allow me to cry “FIRE!” in a crowded theater because then my "right' endangers all the people who possibly trample on each other to get out. Since I've now endangered the public with my "freedom," it's no longer mine to use.
We told you recently how the Obama administration had decided to use its governmental "rights" to usurp the choice of Catholics and pro-life business providers who previously were granted the right to exercise their consciences and demonstrate religious freedom to not provide services such as abortion pills, sterilization, and even the types of contraception that are abortive. If you missed that update you can find it here.
Sunday morning, virtually every Catholic church in America read a letter to its congregants announcing it could not comply, and calling the church to action. Business Insider reports on this and says, accurately:
To give an analogy, it would be like the government mandating that all delis, even Kosher delis, serve pork products and then justifying it by saying that protein is healthy, and many Jews who don't follow Kosher laws and many non-Jews go to those delis. The law wouldn't technically ban Jews from owning delis, but it would effectively ban their ability to run them according to their conscience.
Consider this. If a person, by virtue of a religious value, chooses to abstain from something, should government, founded on a free religious expressing then forbid that liberty? Does a Jewish hospital have a right to only serve Kosher food in its cafeteria even if non-Jews patronize it? Do I demand an Islamic business be open on Islamic holidays because they aren’t my holidays? These questions, which may seem ridiculous, are nothing compared to the liberty stolen by the Obama administration who has decided that these Christian organizations not only don’t have the right to not provide these services but must actually pay for others to have them.
Planned Parenthood today praised the Obama administration and the Department of Health and Human Services who despite protests and fights of religious freedom have decided that even if the birth control is an abortifacient, and even if the employer has religious objections to it, those concerns are irrelevant. Universal and mandatory birth control coverage has been ordered, while freedom of religion in this matter is being tossed out the of the White House window.
“[Most employers will be required to cover contraception in their health plans, along with other preventive services, with no cost-sharing such as co-pays or deductibles. This means that after years of trying to get birth control covered to the same extent that health plans cover Viagra, our country will finally have nearly universal coverage of contraception."
While there is a small religious exemption, many religious employers will now have to face a moment of reckoning as the Obama administration has now decided that’s not a right they get to enjoy, religious affiliation or not.
President Obama, who has repeatedly said that he wants to “reduce abortion” seems to be dead set on including abortion funding in his health care act. The House votes tomorrow, Thursday, on H.R. 358. This bill will include Hyde Amendment restrictions to the health care plan and bar any federal funding going to insurance plans that fund abortion.
President Obama has vowed to veto the act—even if it passed the House vote.
This informative video from the American Life League shouldn’t even be necessary since it’s obvious how budgets and funds work; however, there are many who still assert that Planned Parenthood’s government funding doesn’t pay for abortions. (Actually Planned Parenthood itself tells that lie outright.) So the American Life League made this video to help explain how every bit of government funding given to Planned Parenthood is both directly and indirectly paying for abortions.
As a note, I think it’s necessary to again point out that by doing this, we who are pro-life are having our choice taken away. We are forced to pay for abortion at risk of criminal penalty (tax evasion) if we don’t. Yet somehow the government and Planned Parenthood continue to get away with this, even in obvious violation of its own Hyde Amendment.
(Video after jump)
In case there was any question that the Obama administration was hanging out with Planned Parenthood, the brief filed in district court last week should put those thoughts to rest—and raise your radar and prayers.
In a brief filed by the United States Department of Justice, who apparently needs to help Planned Parenthood fight its funding battles, the federal agency concurs that Indiana is somehow breaking the law by banning the private organization from federal funding. The Associated Press reports:
Justice Department attorneys said U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt should grant Planned Parenthood’s request for an injunction because it blocks Medicaid recipients’ freedom to choose the provider of their choice. The law signed May 10 by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels cuts off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood because the organization provides abortions.
"The public interest strongly supports preserving the freedom of choice that Congress conferred," the brief said.
The freedom comment in the brief is most baffling because there’s nowhere in any congressional ruling on freedom that demands that a state must give money to a private organization who does big business in abortion. Congress certainly speaks on human freedoms, but congressional interest falls far more in favor of people like us, who should have a freedom of choice about their monies going to things morally offensive.