Pro-Life Advocates Can Respond to Obama Dumping Abortion Conscience Clause

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 10, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Pro-Life Advocates Can Respond to Obama Dumping Abortion Conscience Clause

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 10
, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — After waiting for the Obama administration to fix an email issue, pro-life advocates can now respond to President Barack Obama’s decision to dump the Provider Conscience Clause. That is the regulation President Bush put in place to protect doctors and medical centers not wanting to do abortions.

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.

The Obama administration published its proposal and provided an email address the public could use to comment on his plan to dump the rule. The email address has not been working since it was first made public last Friday.

That has changed and, now, pro-life advocates can express their opposition to the Obama proposal by emailing [email protected]. The deadline for submitting comments is April 9.

Pro-life advocates tell LifeNews.com that the proposed rescission of the Provider Conscience Clause was posted online on Friday but was not printed until today, which left the Obama administration with a published email address not working for days after the initial announcement.

Comments may be submitted electronically on the Web site www.Regulations.gov (by entering 0991-AB49 in the search box).

By mail, one original and two copies of written comments may be sent to: Office of Public Health and Science, Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: Rescission Proposal Comments, Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 200 Independence Ave. SW, Room 716G, Washington, DC 20201.

Despite the problems, several pro-life leaders are working to generate comments against the Obama plan to scrap protections for pro-life doctors and medical centers.

The newly-developed Freedom2Care Coalition will be putting together a web site and asking people to visit it to participate in various ways to help oppose the Obama proposal.

The group will be focusing on Health and Human Services and then expanding to reach members of Congress with opposition to the Obama plan.

Meanwhile, Rep. John Fleming, MD, a Republican congressman from Louisiana, is asking members of Congress to join him in signing a letter that urges President Obama not to rescind the regulation. The letter is expected to be delivered to the president shortly before the comment deadline.

Sen. Tom Coburn, MD, an Oklahoma senator, is circulating a similar letter in the Senate that will be sent to Obama early next week.

Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com

Daily Pro-Life News Report Twice-Weekly Pro-Life
News Report
Receive a free daily email report from LifeNews.com with the latest pro-life news stories on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here. Receive a free twice-weekly email report with the latest pro-life news headlines on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here.