http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/oct/08100206.html
[LifeSiteNews] 3 Oct 2008--In preparation for Respect Life Sunday, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia issued a statement Tuesday in which he praised the successes of the culture of life in America, but strongly warned that the proposed Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) threatens to "obliterate virtually all the gains of the past 35 years."
Cardinal Rigali, Chairman of the United States Committee of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said that during Respect Life Month this October the Church will sponsor pro-life initiatives that are "integral to the Church's ongoing effort to help build a culture in which every human life without exception is respected and defended."
"Let us rededicate ourselves to defending the basic rights of those who are weakest and most marginalized: the poor, the homeless, the innocent unborn, and the frail and elderly who need our respect and our assistance," the cardinal exhorted.
He hailed the decrease in abortion described in the recent Guttmacher Institute study, which found that abortions have been reduced by 58% among girls under 18.
But Cardinal Rigali says he fears that such advances would vanish if FOCA were to become law: "We face the threat of a federal bill that, if enacted, would obliterate virtually all the gains of the past 35 years and cause the abortion rate to skyrocket. FOCA establishes abortion as a 'fundamental right' throughout the nine months of pregnancy, and forbids any law or policy that could 'interfere' with that right or 'discriminate' against it in public funding and programs.
"If FOCA became law," the cardinal warned, "hundreds of reasonable, widely supported, and constitutionally sound abortion regulations now in place would be invalidated," including informed consent laws, freedom of conscience laws, and laws protecting women from unsafe abortion clinics and practitioners. Restrictions on partial-birth abortion and late-term abortion would also disappear, and taxpayers would be forced to fund abortions across America.
Related article:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/oct/08100212.html
Federal "Freedom of Choice Act" would Make "Null and Void" all Abortion Restrictions in the US: Kansas City Bishop Warns - LifeSiteNews
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