Tag: conscience protections

USCCB- Too Little, Too Late?

~ Pharmer

Catholic Bishops Start Religious Liberty Cmte Over Obamacare | LifeNews.com.

At Pharmer’s parish, the Pro Life Month of October was kicked off   with  another flogging with the “Seamless Garment”.  Yep, this isn’t the first time.

The seamless garment concept used by Archbishop Joseph  Bernardin  has since been abused to make it OK for Catholics to vote for pro-abortion politicians as long as they offered enough governmental goodies for the poor, etc.

After decades of “war on poverty”, we have more poor than ever, and destruction of the family unit, particularly in the segments of the population most “helped” by the government.

In 2004, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, (now Pope Benedict XVI) issued a memorandum to the U.S. Bishops,  which as been said to shred the seamless garment concept, by categorizing  abortion as a most serious means of exiting communion with the Catholic Church.

The looming spectre of Obamacare, with its obligate funding of abortion using  the resources of tax payers, with its pro-abortion insurance mandates, and recission of conscience protections for health care professionals, has spurred the USCCB into action.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is going to form an Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty.

Weekend Business: Repeal of Bush’s Conscience Protections for Health Care Professionals

~ Pharmer ~ 3 Comments

It’s a whisper in the news……. You’d have to dig hard to find it.  Obama gutted the  regulations Bush had put into place to protect conscientiously objecting health care professionals from discrimination.

There were essentially no new provisions in Bush’s executive order, except to cause institutions to worry about receiving federal funds if they discriminated against health care professionals who refuse to kill humans in their practice.

Obama has returned the situation to its previous state:  toothless conscience legislation, nearly unenforceable because  unemployed health care professionals usually lack  funds to bring civil redress when incidents of discrimination occur. Also,  what remains of “protection” will only apply to what is obviously recognized as abortion to a layman,   and sterilization.   Objection to chemical abortions at the early stages of human development, and use of various biotech medical devices, unethically derived drugs, vaccines, transplants, implants  (from killed humans) will not be covered.

Actually the situation is worse than it was previously, as the department of Health and Human Services has utterly no interest in hearing or cataloging incidents of discrimination.   The head of this department, Kathleen Sebelius   had no interest in enforcing medical standards applicable to abortion clinics in her home state of Kansas.

It is fortunate  that the new Congress has shown some interest in this situation, otherwise it might be missed entirely by the public.

The actual  repeal is gibberish,  unless one has intimate  familiarity with the underlying laws and regulations.  Heritage Foundation has pretty much put it in English.

The Sebelius HHS will effectively leave conscientiously objecting health care professionals without protections,  and  all should be prepared to find new jobs or careers should a conflict between the employers mandates and personal conscience ever arise.

As  previously, the protection of conscience for health care professionals will largely lie in the power of the internet, to expose  institutions  which  discriminate against health care professionals who refuse to kill, and reduce private business, and  the sources of charitable   donations, funds and grants.

Obama Admin Still Working to Rescind Conscience Rights on Abortion | LifeNews.com

~ Pharmer

Obama Admin Working to Rescind Conscience Rights on Abortion | LifeNews.com.

Obama began work to rescind Bush’s executive order and HHS regulations to protect the conscience rights of health care workers who refuse to kill their patients at the very beginning of life, immediately upon taking office.   He was so busy with his unconstitutional, health care debacle that this project has been in limbo.

Not to worry.  A physician shortage is integral to the rationing of care, and this can be exacerbated by denying conscience rights to those health care providers who refuse to kill in the practice of medicine.  Obama intends to  complete this project, having Health and Human Services rules promulgated  in early 2011.  Look for it.