The purpose and aim of 40 Days for Life is to pray for an end to abortion and other violence toward God's beautiful gift of life. While we are explicitly not an organization that deals with politics, sadly, the political realm cannot be overlooked. This is particularly true when civil authorities attempt to infringe on natural law and the right to life for all human beings. As Jesus told us, render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.
As prayer warriors for the poorest of the poor, there is a bill in the United States Congress right now that you need to know about. The Freedom of Choice Act is sponsored by numerous high-profile legislators, and Presidential Nominee Barack Obama has pledged that it is the first bill he will sign into law if elected president.
In short, the bill would wipe away any legal restrictions on abortion. Any restrictions whatsoever. While a 17-year old still needs a signed permission slip to participate on a class field trip to a museum, the Freedom of Choice Act would allow 12-year-olds to receive abortions, without parental consent. The absurdity and depravity of this potential law is beyond words. The nation desperately needs your continued prayers.
We have dug up the text of this legislation for your information. Red text is our comment.
The Freedom of Choice Act
To prohibit, consistent with Roe v. Wade, the interference by the government with a woman's right to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy, and for other purposes. Note the subtle language used here: "Bear a child or terminate a pregnancy." The sponsors clearly recognize that a child is the victim of abortion here. However, when this child is unwanted it's a "pregnancy" that is terminated. It's a blatant bit of verbal engineering.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Freedom of Choice Act'. Father John Corapi has an excellent commentary on the use of the word "choice." He notes that it's the only time we don't finish the sentence. For example, we have the choice to go to a movie or get a dog. But the pro-abortion crowd won't elaborate on the type of choice they are promoting because it's clearly evil.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The United States was founded on the principles of individual liberty, personal privacy, and equality. Such principles ensure that each individual is free to make the most intimate decisions free from governmental interference and discrimination. We have always been under the impression that the United State was founded on the principles of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. It goes without saying that all of these rights depend on the right to life.
(2) A woman's decision to commence, prevent, continue, or terminate a pregnancy is one of the most intimate decisions an individual ever faces. As such, reproductive health decisions are best made by the woman, in consultation with her medical provider or loved ones, without governmental interference. We've got another bit of rhetorical engineering with the use of the phrase "reproductive health." There is nothing reproductive nor healthy about killing a pre-born child. When a woman becomes pregnant, it means the reproductive system IS working. This bill treats pregnancy as a disease.
(3) In 1965, in Griswold v. Connecticut (381 U.S. 479), and in 1973, in Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113) and Doe v. Bolton (410 U.S. 179), the Supreme Court recognized the right to privacy protected by the Constitution and that such right encompassed the right of every woman to weigh the personal, moral, and religious considerations involved in deciding whether to commence, prevent, continue, or terminate a pregnancy. Despite these court decisions, the so-called right to privacy does not exist anywhere in the Constitution. Would we as a society be willing to allow any other atrocities as long as they were conducted in private?
(4) The Roe v. Wade decision carefully balanced the rights of women to make important reproductive (Again, there is nothing reproductive about abortion.) decisions with the state's interest in potential life. (Are pre-born babies only potential lives? Let's see. They possess a beating heart, brainwaves, an entirely unique set of 46 chromosomes worth of DNA. They carry out each and every life process recognized by biologists. Scientifically and medically, a pre-born child is a life. The use of the word potential is dishonest.) Under Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, a woman's right to choose to terminate her pregnancy is absolute only prior to fetal viability, with the state permitted to ban abortion after fetal viability except when necessary to protect the life or health of a woman. Note that "health of the mother" has been used to cover nearly any excuse for an abortion, such as financial health.
(5) These decisions have protected the health and lives of women in the United States. Prior to the Roe v. Wade decision, an estimated 1,200,000 women each year were forced (Forced?! In addition to being untrue, this is an insult to women who actually are forced to undergo abortion by oppressive governments.) to resort to illegal abortions, despite the known hazards that included unsanitary conditions, incompetent treatment, infection, hemorrhage, disfiguration, and death. This number was announced by form abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson. Nathanson has since joined the pro-life movement and admitted that he fabricated this number. The real number of illegal abortions was less than 10 percent of this figure.
(6) According to one estimate, prior to 1973, as many as 5,000 women died each year in the United States as a result of having an illegal abortion. Another fabricated number. According to Dr. Nathanson, the real number was approximately 200-250.
(7) In countries where abortion remains illegal, the risk of complications and maternal mortality is high. According to the World Health Organization, of the approximately 600,000 pregnancy-related deaths occurring annually around the world, 80,000 are associated with unsafe abortions. The World Health Organization sadly continues to impose a radical pro-abortion campaign on the Third World.
(8) The Roe v. Wade decision expanded the opportunities for women to participate equally in society. In 1992, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (505 U.S. 833), the Supreme Court observed that, `[t]he ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives.'. Unbelievable. Feminists should be outraged at any suggestion that women can only achieve equality by destroying what makes them feminine: their fertility.
(9) Even though the Roe v. Wade decision guaranteed a constitutional right to choose whether to terminate or continue a pregnancy, threats to that right remain, including possible reversal or further erosion by the Supreme Court of the right, and legislative and administrative policies at all levels of government that make abortion more difficult and dangerous to obtain.
(10) 87 percent of the counties in the United States have no abortion provider. Thanks be to God!
(11) Legal barriers to the full range of reproductive services endanger the health and lives of women.
(12) Women should have meaningful access to reproductive health services to prevent unintended pregnancies, thereby reducing the need for abortions. Study after study confirms that increased use of birth control leads to more abortions.
(13) To ensure that a woman's right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy is available to all women in the United States, Federal protection for that right is necessary. Basically, the government will impose abortion upon us whether we like it or not.
(14) Although Congress may not create constitutional rights without amending the Constitution, Congress may, where authorized by its enumerated powers and not prohibited by the Constitution, enact legislation to create and secure statutory rights in areas of legitimate national concern.
(15) Congress has the affirmative power under section 8 of article I of the Constitution and section 5 of the 14th amendment to the Constitution to enact legislation to facilitate interstate commerce and to prevent State interference with interstate commerce, liberty, or equal protection of the laws.
(16) Federal protection of a woman's right to choose to prevent or terminate a pregnancy falls within this affirmative power of Congress, in part, because--
(A) many women cross State lines to obtain abortions and many more would be forced (Again the use of the word "force" is insulting.) to do so absent a constitutional right or Federal protection;
(B) reproductive health clinics are commercial actors that regularly purchase medicine, medical equipment, and other necessary supplies from out-of-State suppliers; and
(C) reproductive health clinics employ doctors, nurses, and other personnel who travel across State lines in order to provide reproductive health services to patients.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Government- The term `government' includes a branch, department, agency, instrumentality, or official (or other individual acting under color of law) of the United States, a State, or a subdivision of a State.
(2) State- The term `State' means each of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and each territory or possession of the United States.
(3) Viability- The term `viability' means that stage of pregnancy when, in the best medical judgment of the attending physician based on the particular medical facts of the case before the physician, there is a reasonable likelihood of the sustained survival of the fetus outside of the woman. Of course, as medicine improves, viability becomes earlier and earlier. This proves that viability as an absolutely arbitrary guideline. If a fetus is a human being after viability, do medical advances really change when human life begins?
SEC. 4. INTERFERENCE WITH REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH PROHIBITED.
(a) Statement of Policy- It is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman. Again, we hear about choice and choosing. When our politicians talk about choice, we must ask "Is this what you mean?"
(b) Prohibition of Interference- A government may not--
(1) deny or interfere with a woman's right to choose--
(A) to bear a child;
(B) to terminate a pregnancy prior to viability; or
(C) to terminate a pregnancy after viability where termination is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman; or
(2) discriminate against the exercise of the rights set forth in paragraph (1) in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information. In other words, a government official making a pro-life speech could be vulnerable to a lawsuit for "discriminating" against the universal right to abortion.
(c) Civil Action- An individual aggrieved by a violation of this section may obtain appropriate relief (including relief against a government) in a civil action.
Let's consider the sort of laws that would be wiped off the books.
- Parental consent. Children could receive abortions without their parents consent. If you are a parent, this should send chills up your spine.
- Waiting periods. Abortion waiting period laws require patients to be provided with a certain number of days before they can procure an abortion. If the sponsors of this law were really concerned with choice, wouldn't they want to afford women the necessary time to choose correctly?
- Conscience clauses. Pro-life doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other medical professionals would not be allowed to refrain from participating in abortions. Pro-life hospitals would be required to offer them. Why don't these individuals and institutions get "freedom of choice."
- Partial-birth abortion ban. Yes, this grisly procedure in which a living baby is delivered breech up to the head before being stabbed to death would be once again legally protected.
- The Hyde Amendment. Currently, the Medicaid is not allowed to cover abortions. This would change as your tax dollars would immediately be funnelled to kill the preborn.
- Laws requiring that abortion patients receive information on fetal development. Again, why doesn't the pro-abortion movement want women to be able to make an informed choice?
- Doctor-0nly laws. Most states require licensed doctors to perform abortions. The Freedom of Choice Act would not require an abortion provider to have a medical license.
SEC. 5. SEVERABILITY.
If any provision of this Act, or the application of such provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act, or the application of such provision to persons or circumstances other than those as to which the provision is held to be unconstitutional, shall not be affected thereby.
SEC. 6. RETROACTIVE EFFECT.
This Act applies to every Federal, State, and local statute, ordinance, regulation, administrative order, decision, policy, practice, or other action enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or after the date of enactment of this Act.
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