US President–elect Barack Obama’s views on life issues and his readiness to liberalise laws on abortion and embryonic stem cell research should concern us all. His views on these matters and the speed with which he is prepared to implement them should act as a stark warning of what is to come.
Concern is growing that Barack Obama will sign the liberalising Freedom of Choice Act and use his executive powers to overturn President George W. Bush’s veto of embryonic stem cell research on reaching office.
During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama pledged to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which would remove most state and federal restrictions on abortion such as late-term abortion bans and requirements of parental consent. The Act would make state funding available for abortions and would reduce freedom of conscience by eliminating the right of doctors to refuse to perform abortions or abortion-related procedures.
Chicago Cardinal Francis George said that ‘we must all rejoice’ that an African-American will take up office in the White House for the first time in a country that ‘once enshrined slavery’ in law. However the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that policies supporting the liberalisation of abortion will undermine any advances in social justice that come from the new President and Congress.
Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Chicago warned that legislative changes supported by Obama and Biden that threaten the laws that currently allow health-care workers to refuse to carry out procedures that violate their conscience, would threaten Catholic health care facilities with closure and would create ‘a culture of coercion for women’. This is clearly a violation of the right to freedom of conscience and religion.
Cardinal
George agreed, saying that losing federal funds would put Catholic
health care institutions, which make up a third of the nation's
hospitals, out of business. Given the lack of state healthcare
provision in the US, closing Catholic hospitals would put many
low-income patients seeking charitable care from those facilities at
risk, he added.
Catholic Bishops have taken the lead in drafting a statement that pledges to work with the Obama administration on issues such as economic justice, immigration reform, health care for the poor and religious freedom, but that reaffirms the church's commitment to ‘opposing evil’. The statement is expected to say that if the incoming Obama administration enacts proposed abortion rights legislation, they would see it as an attack on the church.
The conference president also said that bishops are preparing to lobby the Obama administration on any policies that diverge from Catholic teaching on marriage and other issues. Catholic leaders—who run hospitals, adoption agencies and other charities nationwide—are deeply concerned that any changes in state and federal law should not jeopardise the policies of Catholic agencies.
Bishop Robert J. Hermann, administrator of the Archdiocese of St. Louis commented that the US has ‘lost perhaps 50 times as many children through abortion in the last 35 years as [they] have lost soldiers in all the wars since the Revolution;’ he unequivocally condemned this history as ‘genocide’.
Whilst John
Podesta, who is in charge of president-elect Obama’s
preparations to take office thinks that Obama ‘feels like he
has a real mandate for change,’ Cardinal
George
sees Obama's success as attributable to the economy, stating that it
was not a referendum on moral issues such as abortion.
Mr. Podesta also revealed that Barack Obama will use his executive powers to repeal President Bush’s veto on embryonic stem cell research, when he takes office on 20th January 2009. The veto was placed on legislation on 20th July—the day after the provisions had been passed by the Senate—in order to maintain restrictions on this unethical research. President-elect Obama supports the research because he erroneously thinks that it will help to find cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's.
Mr. Podesta said that Mr Obama was also reviewing Mr Bush’s executive orders on other issues, which are believed to include funding for ‘family planning’ (such as abortion services) in third world countries.
The use of his executive authority is the quickest way for a new president to make changes, given that new laws can take a long time to be passed by Congress, even when the he holds a legislative majority.
If Barack Obama implements the measures as he is currently indicating then the repercussions will be huge. The economic problems will pale into insignificance compared to the devastation that will be wreaked by the adoption of policies that do not respect life and family.
To see the press reports, click on the following links:
Chicago Tribune: Catholic bishops plan to forcefully confront Obama
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/religion/chi-081111bishops,0,615284.story
The Boston Globe: Catholic bishops warn Obama they'll fight on abortion
Washington Post: Bishops Call Obama-Supported Abortion Rights Bill a Threat to Catholic Church
Associated Press: Cardinal: Abortion undermines common good
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i64rYxpt7S59R2qV9ibf_Qqv-g1AD94C87H00
Times: Barack Obama 'to reverse Bush policy on stem cell research and oil drilling'