Posted on 03/02/2009 5:53:22 AM PST by jmaroneps37
The underhanded Obama administration has quietly moved to rescind the “conscience clause” found in agreements between the federal government and Catholic hospitals.
This “conscience clause” has always protected practitioners from being forced to commit abortions in violation of their consciences. Its removal means Catholic hospitals will be forced to choose between federal funds for committing abortions and closing down to maintain a clear conscience.
Phonies with egg on their faces
Nevertheless, phony “Catholic” judas goats like Douglas Kmiec are still beating their chests with pride at having delivered 52% of the Catholic vote to the abortion team last fall.
In January Kmiec smugly wrote “The scurrilous remarks of conservative bloggers missed the point, which was that I and millions of others who voted for Obama did so not despite our Catholic faith but because of it.”
As a proud “conservative blogger” I have to ask this vile man how voting for a monster who could allow miracle abortion surviving infants to die unattended on a cold steel table in a broom closet is Catholic faith.
Reminding us why print media is dying, two weeks ago Time’s Amy Sullivan instructed us “confused Catholics”, that FOCA does not even exist. Insisting it will not be considered, she gently explains FOCA is merely a myth imagined by our Bishops which will not be voted on in Congress so it can’t threaten the sanctity of life.
Perhaps Sullivan could discern a comforting difference between being sent to a “work camp” rather than a “concentration camp” but her logic escapes me.
The truth may be Obama doesn’t sign anything named FOCA, but whether it’s called FOCA or the Sunshine and Applesauce law, he’ll sign a law extorting Catholic hospitals into committing abortions thereby killing Catholic hospitals.
Obama’s sneaky order proves both of these phonies wrong.
(Excerpt) Read more at collinsreport.net ...
Louisiana ping!!! I hope & pray that hospitals/clinics that are not abortion mills now won’t be turned into one later...I’m thakful that the places where I’ve worked in LA (Ochsner, OLOL) are NOT abortion mills.
Having said that...May the Lord have mercy on this country.
Each poster calling for the Catholic hospitals to divorce themselves from federal dollars is reacting with the first seemingly obvious and logical option. However, the creeping influence of government dollars has attained a breadth that is so great that it is extremely difficult to operate at all. This is the case with public schools that have been roped into programs over decades that now leave them irreversibly dependent on those government program dollars to operate. Universities are in the same situation as research and student loan programs are essential to keeping student populations at a sustaining level.
Hospitals face even more regulatory pressures than universities and with the increased taxation of wage earners, there will be fewer non-government dollars available to sustain operations. Let’s not forget that donations from high wage citizens help institutions and those dollars are going to be taken by the government. Also, any hospital independent of government dollars will be serving a shrinking population of people with the after-tax dollars to pay the fees.
The only institutions that can operate independent of government dollars are generally very small and often poor. Large Catholic hospitals that are financially healthy will be few if they stop taking government money.
Legal question ping.
I guess what i need answered is this, if Catholic hospitals still refuse to perform abortions, what will happen? I mean, what are the consequences?
Good question, since states rights don’t seem to matter anymore.
And, here is another point of information for those who think a hospital or health care provider can ignore government influence. Even though you serve almost no Medicare patients, if Medicare investigates you, regardless whether you have done something bad, medical insurance companies won’t insure you. No insurance, no medical care—it is essential to conducting a medical practice.
http://www.nbcchicago.com/health/tips_info/FYI-Placentas-Dont-Belong-in-Sewars.html
EVIL LIVES!
Legal challenges to opting out are recent. The Exec order wasn't needed, 'til the forces of death were empowered by election results.
Exactly. Case in point, PCA raved because the amendment to recognize embryos and fetuses as part of SCHIP coverage was shut down (nevermind covering the Lamonts that live in mom’s basement and are grown men added to it). But believe me many apply for Medicaid due to pregnancy only to go get their abortions.
http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/news/press-releases/2009/pr01292009_schip.html
But then again, they send out mother’s day and choice on earth cards.
Somehow I think he’ll get everything he desires for at least a while.
BTW Pro Choice America has the fact sheet PDF link at their site re: FOCA
Somebody should tell them it doesn’t exist.
Will Muslims have to perform abortions?
Medicare and Medicaid do not constitute *federal funding* -- they are the means some use for paying a hospital bill, those dollars happen to be federal dollars. Funding is an entirely different ballgame ... if the choice is between some federal dough to help pay for updates in the operating rooms, a new MRI, comfier chairs in the waiting rooms, etc., or being denied this money because the hospital policy is that children, regardless their age, are not killed in it, well, then that hospital simply needs to petition its other supporters, particularly those of the Catholic faith, to make up for federal dollars lost.
If what this order means is that anyone who comes to a Catholic hospital that refuses to perform abortions has Medicare or Medicaid deny paying the bill due for services he received in that hospital, well, to me, that smacks of a kind of religious intolerance, violation of the First Amendment, I would take this to all the way up to the Supreme Court if I were the patient being denied my legitimate bill getting paid.
But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live. (Ex. 1:17)
And from experience, CMS can come down on an organization hard and fast and not have to reveal the reasons why or who made the complaints and for what cause. And don’t forget, the hospital will be paying for the “survey” aka investigation! Oh, and they surely won’t be issuing a refund or paying the hospital for all of the administrative overhead to accomodate them when they’ve spent a week investigating and find that the complaint(s) were malicious and false.
And yes, I have issues with CMS and JCAHO and any other BS accrediting organization in the healthcare industry:)!
Does that mean the Catholic hospitals will need to refuse, or subsidize, medicare patients? What do they do when all health care is nationalized? They can’t accept endless patients without funding.
Did you see the CNN spin?
White House set to reverse health care conscience clause
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/27/conscience.rollback/index.html
Note the 30 day public comment period... right.
If it is, his paid nutshirts/roots will clog it up with messages and Joe/Jane will not be heard. They’ll shout everyone approves, voila.
This of course, assumes that the government has endless amounts of money to spend. This great illusion is on its last legs. It is no longer possible to continue.
For example, Social Security alone is theoretically promised something on the order of $65T. In the wildest fantasies, does anything truly believe that it can be given that amount of money, unless the dollar is as degraded as the Zimbabwe dollar?
What this means, practically speaking, is that Social Security is over. It cannot continue. Even if all the children clap their hands, Tinkerbell will die.
The same applies to the other government “largesse magnifique”, Medicare and Medicaid. They are done, and all that awaits is their autopsy.
Higher education? No more student grants or loans. No billion dollar subsidies. Enormous State University reduced in size by 4/5ths.
This experimental, fantasy economy of endless, ever growing debt has only existed since WWII. It was fun while it lasted, but it built a castle in the sky. Fast or slow, the castle has to return to Earth.
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