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.
No, you are defending the indefensible. One of the ways the morning after pill (as well as all forms of chemical contraception) works is making the uterine wall unfavorable for the implantation of an embryo that has already been conceived.
You never read the fine print, eh, genius! No personal attacks!
It's a First Amendment thing.The open contempt that our politicians have for Catholics....*real* Catholics (as opposed to KennedyCatholics)....is nauseating.
YES it is, it prevents implantation of the fertilized egg.
And don't talk about Mormon bashing or anything like that, because this has ALWAYS been the pro-life position.
So, it’s only abortion after implantation? Ha!
That’s fine. You don’t have to agree with the Catholic position on birth control (although this is abortion we are talking about) so don’t go to a Catholic or religious based hospital for your abortion pills and don’t try to force them to provide them. If all the private religious based hospitals in the US closed their doors it would crush the health industry like a bug.
This is Romney's position, and it is the right coarse of action.
So what term would you use for KILLING a fertilized egg?
It is abortion. Name calling won’t change that.
Thanks for this info. I was not aware. Sad to say, but I’m done with Romney.
Romney signed the law.
Substitute any other politician's name and a liberal issue into your statement and notice how the logic sounds exactly like it came from DU.
The President, and governors too, swears an oath to uphold the law. Mitt has always done his level best to live up to that oath.
The Morning After pill is not Mitt's fault. The law requiring Catholic hospitals to make it available is not Mitt's fault. None of that was up to him.
Mitt obeyed the law.
He’s an opportunist who has no principles. But other than that, he’s a great guy.
When they resort to name calling, they’ve already lost.
If it’s taken “the morning after” I doubt if the eggs have had time to be fertilized...but that’s getting too down and detailed isn’t it?
If that is all you got our of my post you missed the whole point of what I was saying.
He SIGNED the bill into law!
Substitute any other politician's name and a liberal issue into your statement and notice how the logic sounds exactly like it came from DU.
Take your blinders off, the pro-life movement was opposed to this long before anyone knew who Romney was.
So you’re a McCain guy, huh?
TChris: “So, Governor Romney’s good-faith effort to comply with the law is somehow non-conservative??”
You mean overruling his own Department of Health attorneys and contradicting the Massachusetts Catholic Conference attorneys?
Guess you missed the rest of the story...from the original post:
“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.”
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