Abortion
On “Emergency Contraceptives” and Religious Liberty
Ed Whelan in National Review Online
April 18, 2013
...religious believers who oppose the destruction of the lives of unborn human beings have ample basis to object to being dragooned to provide Plan B, Ella, and copper IUDs in their health plans.
Threats against Religious Freedom in Our Country
U.S.Commission on Civil Rights hearing
March 29, 2013
Archbishop Charles Chaput spoke of "...a pattern of government coercion that includes the current administration's HHS mandate, which violates the religious identity and mission of many religiously affiliated or inspired public ministries; interfering with the conscience rights of medical providers, private employers and individual citizens; and attacks on the policies, hiring practices and tax statuses of religious charities and ministries. Why is this hostility happening? I believe much of it links to Catholic and other religious teaching on the dignity of life and human sexuality."
Senate Democrats Vote Against Conscience Protections From HHS Mandate
LifeNews
March 22, 2013
Maureen Ferguson, Senior Policy Advisor with The Catholic Association, decried the vote in comments to LifeNews.
"The Senate today voted against the First Amendment and religious freedom in a vote forcing Americans to pay for abortion products in their health care plans," she said. "People of faith should not be forced to buy health plans that include products that so flagrantly conflict with their religious faith."
How to reduce abortions
Richard M. Doerflinger in The Washington Post
February 21, 2013
Assuming we don't want to focus on compromising the autonomy and dignity of women to achieve a sterile population, what approaches with wide popular support could reduce abortion, even as it remains legal under the Supreme Court's decisions?
Gaining ground in a 40-year march on abortion
Jeanne Monahan in Washington Times
January 24, 2013
Developments in prenatal imaging, including ultrasound, which provide a stark look at the humanness of unborn children, have played a part in public opinion. Another tremendously hopeful sign on the horizon involves young people’s views on abortion. The bottom line is that young people are pro-life and are incredibly enthusiastic about ending the human rights abuse of abortion.
‘Culture wars' are just getting started
M. Dannenfelser commentary - Washington Times
November 28, 2012
Happy days are here again for Planned Parenthood. It has helped return to the White House the most active pro-abortion president in American history, protected the largest expansion of abortion and abortion subsidies since Roe v. Wade, and reinstated a Democratic Senate that will block pro-life initiatives and battle tooth and nail for judges who will protect abortion on demand.
Charmaine Yoest’s Cheerful War on Abortion
New York Times
November 2, 2012
Yoest says that her ideas about abortion are driven by science. "I can speak as someone who spent 10 years getting a Ph.D. at one of the top universities in the country, working with the data to get it to pass muster," she told me the first time we met, over breakfast at a restaurant near her office.
The ‘Contraception’ Controversy Unmasked
National Review
October 26, 2012
Christen Varley: "The Obama administration, supporters of the mandate, and the media want us to believe this is simply about access to contraception. It’s been largely ignored that there are abortion-inducing drugs included in the mandate. We want to make sure people understand all that is being required. It helps explain why more people than just Catholics are up in arms about it — and in court about it, too.
Common Ground or Not, Let’s Do What’s Right
FRC blog by Rob Schwarzwalder
August 29, 2012
Some well-meaning souls are calling for Christians to stand-down in the battle for our culture and simply be nice to everybody. In practical terms, this means abandoning the unborn, their mothers, marriage and the family, and religious liberty to those who would harm them.
Is religious freedom being intentionally eroded?
Turtle Bay and Beyond commentary by Wendy Wright
August 9, 2012
Soon after President Obama took office, astute observers noticed a one word change in official pronouncements. That one word carries huge implications, yet arrived with no explanation. This mystery may now be understood as what's behind some of the most contentious international and domestic policy decisions of the Obama administration - the contraception mandate and aggressive promotion of homosexuality in other countries.
Bizarre White House meeting undermines faith-based outreach
Freedom2Care blog by Jonathan Imbody
July 27, 2012
I recently experienced what was by far the most disturbing and bizarre of dozens of White House meetings and events that I've attended--the White House Forum for Faith Leaders in conjunction with the International AIDS Conference 2012.
Friends, foes of health care ruling react
Town Hall
June 29, 2012
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List: "From the outset, Obamacare is fundamentally flawed legislation because it makes American taxpayers complicit in the deaths of countless unborn children. Today's decision to uphold the individual mandate to force individuals to purchase health care plans that offend their conscience is incredibly disappointing."
Pregnancy, Preventive Services and Cost Saving: An Ethical and Economic Mirage
Commentary by Chuck Donovan, Charlotte Lozier Inst.
June 27, 2012
Without the ability to track the value of investment in human capital and the return on an individualized basis, the presumed cost-savings of family planning even to government is a pseudo-statistic that depends on an extremely narrow frame of reference and a deterministic, faintly eugenic theory of human development. Numerous nations that have experienced sharp drops in fertility are facing crises of aging that threaten the viability of their economies and government services across the board.
Modern-day slaves, hostage to abortion
NY Daily News commentary by S. Wagner and K. Daniels
June 24, 2012
In May 2011, the federal Department of Health and Human Services decided its human trafficking grant-making process would prioritize those who would provide “family planning services and the full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care.” Translation: Unless you offer abortion and contraception, you’re not welcome.
Emergency Contraception: We need an unbiased review of the facts
Family Research Council blog by Jeanne Monahan
June 7, 2012
In the end, this conversation requires caution and continued unbiased research. The difference between preventing and destroying life is immensely significant to women who choose to take these drugs. Women have the right to know about all of the scientific research, not merely the research supporting an individual ideology.
Different words, same policy
Washington Times commentary by Anna Franzonello
May 23, 2012
This week my alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, was one of more than 40 plaintiffs to file suit against the Department of Health and Human Services regarding its mandate that private health insurance plans cover life-ending drugs and devices, including the abortion-inducing drug ella.
HHS doesn't speak for me, or many women
Washington Post commentary by Helen Alvare
May 22, 2012
HHS is further suggesting that rather than allowing female employees of religious institutions to seek contraceptive coverage, a government-approved entity will simply provide it to them and all their female beneficiaries (minors included) “automatically” — and without any co-pay to tip off minors’ parents. This isn’t freedom. This is coercion, along with the undermining of parents’ duties and rights respecting their children.
Our Religious Freedom - video
Chancellor Jane Belford of Archdiocese of Washington explains lawsuit
May 22, 2012
Chancellor Jane Belford of the Archdiocese of Washington explains the significance of the lawsuit filed to protect freedom to practice religion. Chancellor Belford details why the suit is necessary in light of the attempt of the government to redefine what is a religious institution. She explains that under the new definition that the work of Mother Teresa no longer would qualify as the work of a religious institution.
Hercules v. Obama
Alliance Defense Fund video on lawsuit
May 21, 2012
ADF attorneys file suit against administration's 'abortion pill' mandate on behalf of Denver's Hercules Industries.
Healthcare mandate endangers religious freedom
The Hill commentary by Jim Nicholson
May 18, 2012
This radical policy change will be devastating to religious organizations who are working to provide critical services to Americans in need. These institutions may now be forced to pay huge fines, be subject to unelected bureaucrats' defining their status, limiting their work, or even shutting them down altogether. This would not just impact the organizations themselves, but the millions of needy Americans whom these organizations serve.
Is Conscience Partisan?
Public Discourse commentary by Richard Doerflinger
April 15, 2012
During his final illness Sen. Ted Kennedy wrote a letter to Pope Benedict XVI, stating, "I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field, and I'll continue to advocate for it as my colleagues in the Senate and I work to develop an overall national health policy that guarantees health care for everyone."
Ringing a Bell for Liberty
National Review Online interview: Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
April 2, 2012
"Nothing guarantees that America's experiment in religious freedom, as we traditionally know it, will survive here in the United States, let alone serve as a model for other countries in the future," Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia writes in the new e-book, A Heart on Fire: Catholic Witness and the Next America.
