Extremist Legislation Would Bar ANY Abortion Regulation

I had never heard of bills S.1173 and H.R.1964, the so-called "Freedom of Choice Act", until I received a couple of email alerts today about them from Catholics for the Common Good and Trinity Communications (who run the CatholicCulture.org website). S.1173 is sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and co-sponsored by 17 other Democrats including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry plus 2 liberal-leaning "Independents". The corresponding House bill is sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and co-sponsored by 109 other Democrats

So what exactly would this proposed legislation do? It would create a "fundamental right" to abortion THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE NINE MONTHS OF PREGNANCY. It would eliminate ALL limits on abortion and force all Americans to SUBSIDIZE ABORTIONS WITH THEIR TAX MONEY.

The abortion regimen imposed by FOCA would be MUCH MORE EXTREME than the implications of Roe v. Wade. FOCA would RULE OUT ANY possibility of limiting or regulating abortion.

FOCA would apply to EVERY FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL regulation pertaining to abortion.

The measures that would be overridden by FOCA include informed consent laws, parental involvement laws, laws promoting maternal health, conscience protection laws, laws prohibiting a particular abortion procedure (e.g., partial birth abortion), laws requiring that abortions only be performed by a licensed physician, abortion clinic regulations, government programs that pay for or promote childbirth and other health care without subsidizing abortion.

As the legal analysis done by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops notes:

"If FOCA were enacted, it would wipe out a very large number of existing state laws on abortion, substantially impede the ability of states to regulate abortion, and override nearly 40 years of jurisprudential experience on the matter of abortion."

FOCA states that the decision whether to have an abortion is a "fundamental" right, even though in 1992 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Casey decision that states may regulate abortion so long as the regulations do not impose an "undue burden" on women. FOCA does not bar "substantial" regulations as Casey does but rather ANY interference with the decision whether to have an abortion.

As the USCCB analysis puts it,

"FOCA is a radical measure....It is difficult to recall any other single piece of legislation that, in a single stroke, would have such a comparable destructive impact on the government's ability to regulate abortion."

Pro-abortion groups are pushing the 110th Congress to enact this legislation soon. Those of us who oppose the expansion of the "culture of death" in this country must speak out for the voiceless potential victims of this heinous act!