Posted on 01/31/2008 11:37:43 AM PST by AFA-Michigan
BOSTON -– In a shocking turn-around, Massachusetts’s governor Mitt Romney announced yesterday that Roman Catholic and other private hospitals in the state will be forced to offer emergency contraception to sexual assault victims under new state legislation, regardless of the hospitals’ moral position on the issue.
The Republican governor had earlier defended the right of hospitals to avoid dispensing the “morning-after pill” on the grounds of moral dissent. The Boston Globe reported that Romney’s flip on the issue came after his legal counsel, Mark D. Nielsen, concluded Wednesday that the new law supersedes a preexisting statute related to the abortifacient pill.
The pill, a high dose of hormones, acts as an abortifacient by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterine wall, thereby causing the death of the child.
The Department of Public Health issued a statement earlier in the week allowing hospitals to dissent from the new law, under a previous statute that protects private hospitals from being forced to provide abortion services or contraceptives.
Daniel Avila, associate director for policy and research for the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, said yesterday in an interview with the Boston Globe that Catholic hospitals still have legal grounds to avoid providing the pill, despite the new legislation. The new bill did not expressly repeal the original law protecting the rights of Catholic facilities.
“As long as that statute was left standing, I think those who want to rely on that statute for protection for what they’re doing have legal grounds.” (Boston Globe)
The Conference has been fighting this new legislation for several years. In 2003, in a statement to the Joint Committee on Health Care, they outlined their concern over the proposed Emergency Contraception Access Act (ECAA), stating: “It will force Catholic medical personnel to distribute contraceptives even in cases involving the risk of early abortion. It also furthers a national strategy ultimately directed towards coercing Catholic facilities to provide insurance coverage for, and to perform, abortions.”
The governor’s turnaround is especially unexpected since Romney has been presenting himself as a conservative on social issues in anticipation of a possible run for the presidency in 2008. This decision will certainly undermine the credibility of his conservatism with Republican Party members that may have been inclined to support him up to now.
The 'morning after pill' does not prevent conception. It does create an inhospitable environment preventing any embryo from finding a home. It does prevent pregnancy, but not conception, by preventing implantation. If conception has occurred, pregnancy has already begun, hormones are signaled, even before implantation, otherwise implantation can't occur. The morning after pill halts this by preventing implantation. Ends the pregnancy. Abortion is it's 'sister act', ending pregnancy after implantation has occurred. Both have the same result - a conceived embryo is deprived of growth, it's life ended. Same results, different means to an end. Class dismissed.
Hi Nic
Today is my Mom’s birthday..
She died 15 years ago, but I always celebrate the wonderful woman who remains my heroine...
I went out to eat with some fanmily...
I am so thankful to my mother for even more this year..
For her entire 80 years she remained the same in her firm stance as a pro-lifer...
Thank you Mom, for leaving me a legacy that I can be proud of ....
“Please site the Massachusetts state law that allows the governor to override a law passed by the state legislature. “
Its called a veto... Romney could have vetoed the bill, as it was he signed it into law and then now says he could not have done anything its down right clintonesq of him..
So IOW if romney should ever face a super majority of the house and senate against him he should just roll over..
It is a hard choice murders getting amnesty or federal funds to perform abortion... hmm...
Senator Susan C. Fargo of Lincoln, who cochairs the Legislature’s Public Health Committee, said: ‘’Mitt Romney’s justification for this flip-flop is nothing but a cowardly smoke screen. His real motivation is his political ambition.”
The “flip-flop” in this case was his vote of legislation giving access to the morning after pill. This veto was a change to a questionnaire that abortion rights groups gave to the gubernatorial candidates in 2002, Romney answered yes to the question, ‘’Will you support efforts to increase access to emergency contraception?”
Romney’s opposition to the bill was given with these words: ‘’I do support expansion of emergency contraception; I have no problem with emergency contraception,” he told reporters in his office. ‘’This product not only does that, but in some cases terminates life after conception. In that case, it ceases to be an emergency contraception bill and becomes an emergency abortion bill.”
The Massachusetts Legislature later overturned Romney’s veto. In fact the battle that ensued over this one issue went back and forth like a ping pong game. It is hard to follow all of its pongs. And it is easy to find something Romney did in the battle that appears pro choice. You would be looking at the trees and not seeing the forest.
I is my belief that you can be as anti abortion as Jesus Christ, but when you deal with the Left in their dirty politics, they will rig the game so it looks like you slept with the devil. When it comes to Right to Life, I believe Dr. John Willke, who said, ““Unlike other candidates who only speak to the importance of confronting the major social issues of the day, Governor Romney has a record of action in defending life. Every decision he made as Governor was on the side of life. I know he will be the strong pro-life President we need in the White House. Governor Romney is the only candidate who can lead our pro-life and pro-family conservative movement to victory in 2008.”
I meant: "The “flip-flop” in this case was his veto of legislation
This is unjustifiable. I can’t stand Mitt Romney. I wish he really was the candidate I’d thought he was in that first debate. But he’s a fraud through and through. I don’t want to vote for any of these creeps. I vote on Super Tuesday, what should I do?!
The founder of Free Republic yesterday posted a notice urging Freepers to vote for Huckabee.
that’s what I did in my state’s primary.
Morning Nana. Sweet of you to celebrate your mother’s birthday and that you have a rightfully proud memory of her and what kind of person she was. You are much more fortunate than I, as my mother died while she was still young (only 41 at her death). She was also good woman who always taught me my earliest beliefs in God, to do what is good, tell the truth, and have a strong work ethic. We are both fortunate to have these wonderful memories of our mothers.
You must have been young yourself when your precious Mom died...
God blessed her with a lovely and sweet daughter...
I know she loved you and was proud of you...
(HUGS)
:)
RINO Romney - Mr ABORTION-ON-DEMAND
Romney - Champion of Abortion 1994
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9IJUkYUbvI&feature=related
Romney - Champion of Abortion 2002
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_w9pquznG4
Yes ma’am. She died 2 weeks before I was 13 of a brain tumor (a total shock to all of us). I sure have and do miss my mom. She was a good woman and mother. Life is a precious gift, is it not?
Life is a precious gift, is it not?”
Yes Honey, it is...
Amen!
: )
Amen
:)
That was a great clip. True words there about the Bible and God.
:)
You didn’t answer the question - whether he vetoed or not, the law was going into effect. His oath of office then required him to uphold the law.
What you are advocating is a chief executive who either disobeys the law, and is then subject to impeachment proceedings and removal from that office, or a person who cannot be in office because they cannot morally fulfill the obligations of their office.
Either way, the person is out of the system.
So in your view, the only ethical thing is for pro-life advocates to skip getting elected and work outside of the system.
That’s fine, but know that that’s the practical result of what you’re advocating.
: Let’s face it, none of the candidates are perfect. They never are. But McCain is the least perfect of the viable candidates. The only one left standing who can honestly be said to share most of our conservative principles is Mitt Romney. I say this as someone who has not been an active Romney supporter. If conservatives don’t unite behind Romney at this stage, and become vocal in their support for him, then they will get McCain as their Republican nominee and probably a Democrat president. And in either case, we will have a deeply flawed president.
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