Pro-Life Response Needed Soon to Obama Axing Abortion Conscience Protections

From http://www.lifenews.com/nat4971.html

Pro-Life Response Needed Soon to Obama Axing Abortion Conscience Protections

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 7, 2009

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Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama has proposed overturning the conscience protections the Bush administration put in place and pro-life advocates have until Thursday to respond. Prominent pro-life groups are urging every pro-life advocate to issue a public comment by this week's deadline.
Three different federal laws provide legal protections for medical professionals. After determining those laws were not always followed by local governments and some medical centers, the Bush administration sought to strengthen them
The Bush administration put the rules in place to require a written agreement to follow the conscience laws and gave victims better access to federal employment discrimination agencies to consider legal action if their rights were violated.

Relying on claims from leading pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood, Obama instructed his administration to overturn the new rules.
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, underscored the reasons the protections are needed in a Monday email to LifeNews.com.
"These regulations, which President Obama is planning to rescind, would ensure that programs that receive federal funds, including federal, state and local government programs, do not discriminate against health care workers who object to participating in such practices as abortion and sterilization," he explained.
"We need you to submit comments to HHS in support of these regulations to enforce current law because groups like Planned Parenthood have supplied thousands of comments to HHS asking them to rescind these pro-conscience regulations," he continued.

Pro-life advocates can express their opposition to the Obama proposal by emailing proposedrescission@hhs.gov. The deadline for submitting comments is April 9.
Comments may be submitted electronically on the Web site www.Regulations.gov (by entering 0991-AB49 in the search box).

Several pro-life groups have also banded together to offer freedom2care.org, a web site with tools to make it easy for pro-life people to respond to Obama's likely decision to rescind the medical protections. http://www.freedom2care.org
Perkins has some advice for how best for medical professionals to comment.
"If possible, describe fully any cases in which you or someone you know has experienced discrimination against your conscience related to a health procedure, including but not limited to the performance of abortion," he said.

Buzz up!