Remember President Bush recently implemented safeguards to prevent hospital staff from being forced to perform abortions and medical activities against their religious beliefs.
Pro-choice groups, of course, cried foul, arguing that the last-minute regulation is an attack on a woman’s right to choose and will restrict women’s access to abortion and contraceptives. The poor things. The incoming Obama administration has signaled it may act quickly to repeal the rule.
I hope Republicans put up a fight because these fights have very real consequences.
In fact, according to OneNewsNow: a legal alliance of Christian attorneys is currently taking on a University of Wisconsin hospital over abortion.
Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney Matt Bowman has sent a letter to officials at the hospitals and clinics about implementing a secret and potentially illegal plan to perform the abortions with a jointly-operated clinic.
“In Wisconsin there’s a plan to take a legitimate medical facility and impose upon it — by its leadership at the University of Wisconsin — late-term, second-trimester abortions,” he explains, “and pro-life health professionals at the facility who object are in danger of being required to participate in some way.”
According to an ADF press release, the plan could force reluctant employees to “[dismember] preborn babies,” regardless of firmly held religious views they might have against it. The act could also be determined as illegal funding of abortion by the state.
Bowman believes no one should be forced to act against ethical or religious objections in the work place. “ADF is prepared to take legal action immediately on any coercion or penalties applied to pro-life health professionals because of their objection to this,” he points out.
Any coercion, Bowman adds, could mean the school is violating state or federal law, or both.
I believe that the right to act according to your conscience is the next fight on the horizon concerning life.
It will be interesting to see if the Democrats and the Obama administration are going to be willing to go to the mattresses on this one. I think this will be an obvious predictor as to how the next four year are going to go.
