In the news...
November 20, 2009
CMA Doctors: Sen. Harry Reid's "We'll Put Up If you Shut Up" Deal Won't Sway Principled Physicians
October 21, 2009 - CMA CEO David Stevens, MD: "Mr. Reid and his allies may be working behind closed doors on a clever way to pass healthcare legislation, but maybe they should be working on who's going to carry out their new scheme if over half the nation's physicians quit medicine."
Read Full Release
Freedom2Care blog:Why healthcare access hinges on civil liberties
October 15, 2009 - In a recent opinion piece in the Washington Post, Louisiana Republican governor Bobby Jindal focuses exclusively on financial solutions such as refundable tax credits and litigation reform. In actual practice, however, civil liberties protections may offer the greatest health benefit to the poor. Read blog entry
Freedom2Care blog: Finally, something good to say about a healthcare reform bill
October 7, 2009 - Today the 16,000-member Christian Medical Association (CMA, www.cmda.org), the nation's largest association of faith-based physicians, voiced support for the conscience-protecting provisions in the "Empowering Patients First Act," a bill introduced by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA 6th). CMA contended that the protections are needed to avoid a potentially catastrophic loss of faith-based healthcare on which millions of poor patients depend. Read blog entry
NRLC: White House wrong on abortion funding
National Right to Life Committee - Many members of Congress, and the President, have suggested that the Hyde Amendment will prevent federal government funding of abortion under H.R. 3200. This claim is entirely erroneous. Under H.R. 3200, the new federal insurance program (the "public option") will pay for elective abortion with federal government funds, and public funds will also directly subsidize private insurance plans that cover all abortions. Read full text
CMA physicians support conscience provisions to protect poor patients
September 30, 2009 - The 16,000-member Christian Medical Association (CMA, www.cmda.org), the nation's largest association of faith-based physicians, today voiced support for the conscience-protecting provisions in the "Empowering Patients First Act," a bill introduced by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA 6th). CMA contended that the protections are needed to avoid a potentially catastrophic loss of faith-based healthcare on which millions of poor patients depend. Read CMA news release and letter
Washington Times: CMA commentary (Jonathan Imbody) on healthcare bills and abortion
September 21, 2009 - House and Senate health care bills are floundering because congressional leadership, mistakenly interpreting a vague "hope and change" sentiment among the electorate for a radical shift in American values, failed to discern the difference between "reforming" and "transforming" health care... read full commentary
Weekly Standard: How many House votes will Obama lose because of its abortion subsidy?
Sep. 21, 2009, Volume 015, Issue 01 - According to soft-spoken pro-life Michigan Democrat Representative Bart Stupak, Barack Obama isn't telling the full truth when he says, as he did last Wednesday night, "no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions" in the congressional health care plan.
"There certainly is public funding for abortion" in the House bill, Stupak told me the day after Obama's speech. The bill would allow both the public health insurance plan and federally subsidized private plans to cover elective abortions. Read full article
Freedom2Care sends petition update to President Obama
September 15, 2009 - As coordinator of the Freedom2Care coalition of over 50 organizations, today the Christian Medical Association (CMA, www.cmda.org ) sent a letter to President Obama indicating that over 10,000 individuals have signed a Freedom2Care petition urging the President and Congress to protect conscience rights and stop abortion mandates. The letter to the President noted that "the problem of discrimination in health care and protecting conscience rights through both law and regulation are key to protecting patients' access to health care now and in the future." Read more...
Los Angeles Times: Abortion foes aren't buying Obama's assurances
Sep. 11, 2009 - "We think there is a very active effort to muddy the waters and to put out disinformation, and regrettably, the president has been part of that," said Johnson of National Right to Life.
Added Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life: "There is never going to be a bill that has 'abortion' written in capital letters with red arrows saying 'abortion here!' It's a technical issue that will come down to how the courts interpret it once it passes." Read full article
Freedom2Care presentation at U.S. Capitol educates Congressional staffers
September 10, 2009 - Freedom2Care today briefed Congressional leaders and staff at the U.S. Capitol on the impact of conscience rights, currently under consideration in healthcare overhaul legislation, on patient access to care.
Freedom2Care Project Manager and Christian Medical Association VP for Govt. Affairs Jonathan Imbody explained in the presentation, "A faith-based healthcare professional is motivated by moral principles and faith teachings that include caring for the poor, treating each patient as a valuable individual made in God's image, and respecting the sanctity of human life from fertilization to natural death. What Congress needs to realize as it considers the role of conscience in health care is that all of these principles that motivate faith-based healthcare professionals come as a package. The faith-based healthcare professional does not and cannot separate his or her motivation for caring for the poor from his or her commitment to upholding the sanctity of life. That means that if legislation or regulations impair the faith-based professional's ability to base their medical practice on moral principles, they can no longer practice medicine." Mr. Imbody also provided Freedom2Care's national polling data on conscience rights and illustrated the personal impact of conscience rights on healthcare professionals. View presentation: 
090910 Cong. briefing
