According to published reports, the pro-abortion Administration of President Barack Obama today began the process to rescind a regulation that enforces federal laws protecting the conscience rights of doctors and health care providers. The Washington Post reported that the first step was taken this morning when the Office of Management and Budget announced that it was “reviewing a proposal to lift the controversial ‘conscience’ regulation.” There is a 30-day public comment period once the OMB reviews the proposal and publishes it in the Federal Register.

The Post also reported that an official with the Health and Human Services Department, which drafted the rule change, explicitly said, “We are proposing rescinding the Bush rule” [referring to pro-life President George W. Bush].

Issued by the Bush Administration, this regulation was designed to raise awareness in the medical community and general public, as well as increase compliance with federal laws protecting doctors and health care providers from discrimination in federally funded health care programs. Health care providers are increasingly being pressured to violate their moral convictions with regards to abortion. Read more…

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)

Congressman Chris Smith was blocked from offering two pro-life, pro-child, pro-women amendments to the huge $410 billion FY2009 Omnibus spending bill considered on the House floor Wednesday.

Smith had testified before the Democrat House Rules Committee and notified them of his two pro-life amendments, but the Rules Committee issued a closed rule that barred either amendment from even being brought to the House floor to be considered or voted upon.

Smith’s first amendment would restore the prolife “Mexico City Policy,” rescinded by Obama in his first week of office. Announced in 1984, the policy prohibits U.S. taxpayer money to fund groups that promote or perform abortion in other countries, while allowing other family planning activities.

“As a direct, absolutely predictable consequence of President Obama’s Abortion Export Order a few weeks ago nullifying the Mexico City Policy the number of innocent children forced to die from dismemberment, decapitation, or chemical poisoning by abortion will increase significantly, mostly in Africa and Latin America,” said Smith. Read more…

This first appeared in the July 1982 issue of National Right to Life News.

The Pro-Life Movement today stands as the principle defender of the historically radical belief that “every person has an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Reverend Richard Neuhaus told an overflow audience at the 1982 NRLC National Convention.

Rebutting the stereotype of the Movement as a reactionary force Neuhaus argued that on the contrary the pro-life movement is radical, “not by virtue of how far out it is but by virtue of how deep and central is the question it raises.” That question, which Neuhaus said is the beginning of all moral judgment and all just law, “is simply this” Who then is my neighbor?”

Neuhaus told his audience that the outcome to the debate over abortion is fundamental. Abortion is not merely one issue among many. The answer we give to that question, Neuhaus said, will “define the America that we pass on to our children…” Read more…

Archbishop Chaput of Denver

In a recent talk given in Ireland, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver spoke about several “dos and don’ts” for the pro-life movement. There were two particularly important points he made in regard to the lengthy American experience with fighting abortion:

I don’t know if there was a particular reason for making “don’t let yourselves be tricked into an inferiority complex” #1, but it surely is of huge importance. Archbishop Chaput is talking here about authentic pluralism, not the bogus slogan that is used as a hammer by pro-abortionists to pulverize pro-lifers for having the audacity to take part in the public square. Read more…