By Moe Wosepka, Executive Director
Montana Catholic Conference

Occasionally a legislative proposal comes along that contains provisions so sweeping that its passage would overturn or nullify hundreds of laws enacted at both the federal and state level. Most proposals this far-reaching disappear in committees and never see the light of day. One such bill which has not risen to the top before has been rewritten in an even more extreme fashion and is now gaining support in our national assemblies in Washington, D.C. The proposed legislation is called the “Freedom of Choice Act” and is most often referred to as FOCA.

The Freedom of Choice Act does not promote choice, but quite the contrary would rescind numerous choices made by the people of this nation to provide commonsense restrictions to abortion. According to Mike Moses, associate general counsel of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, this bill would create a “fundamental right” to abortion throughout the entire pregnancy. It would overturn the partial birth abortion ban and current laws preventing post-viability sex-selection abortions. The law would overturn state laws protecting women from unqualified abortionists, and those protecting minor children from surgical abortion procedures without parental consent.

This act goes so far as to require that public hospitals that provide services for child birth but do not provide abortion services will be deemed to “discriminate” and could be subject to civil action. It would put doctors, nurses and other medical personnel in peril if their decision not to perform an abortion causes even the slightest delay or difficulty in obtaining an abortion. These actions could have a long-lasting negative impact on Catholic hospitals, medical providers and those they serve.

FOCA is a radical measure which would forbid government from interfering with this new abortion right “in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information … even those designed to make abortion safer.”

The six-page memorandum issued by Moses last August is posted on the USCCB website at www.usccb.org/prolife/issues /FOCA/index.shtml.

In his closing paragraph he says, “On balance, then, FOCA is a radical measure. It would, by its terms, go well beyond Roe. … It would impose upon the entire country an abortion regime far worse that anything wrought by Roe or cases decided under it. … 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.”

Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, recently released a statement to all members of congress urging them to oppose the legislation. The National Committee for Human Life Amendment issued a statement reaffirming Cardinal Rigali’s concerns. Their statement also provides a link to the list of those members of Congress who have signed on as co-sponsors of FOCA. There are currently 104 from the House and 19 from the Senate. (See www.nchla.org/actiondisplay.asp?ID=263.)

This is not commonsense legislation. Although it purports to protect women from unwelcome intrusion in their health decisions, the bill as written could cause great harm to women, children, health care providers and hospitals.

What’s my advice? Read the bill; check out the analysis on the USCCB website and the list of co-sponsors on the NCHLA website. Then call your senators and congressmen and tell them you do not want them to support this legislation.

Moe Wosepka is the executive director of the Montana Catholic Conference. You can reach him by phone at 442-5761, e-mail director@montanacc.org or check out the website www.montanacc.org.


Published in The Montana Catholic, Vol. 24, No. 10, October 17, 2008.