By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Revealing how she feels about conscience protection in health care reform, Attorney General Martha Coakley, a Democrat running in a special election to replace Sen. Ed. Kennedy in the U.S. Senate, says Catholics who believe in Church teaching and who value their religious freedom shouldn’t work in an emergency room.
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The U.S. Bishops are once again sending out bulletin inserts and pulpit announcements to the nation’s parishes with the hopes of inspiring to Catholics to become active in the effort to prevent health care reform from advancing a pro-abortion agenda.
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
In a letter written to Pope Benedict XVI only months before his death and hand-delivered by President Barack Obama during his July 2009 audience at the Vatican, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy acknowledges his human failures but offers no apology for his career-long support for abortion rights.
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has ruled that a small Catholic college must include coverage for artificial contraceptives in its employee health insurance plan, raising new concerns about the need for conscience protections and religious exemptions in America’s health care policies.
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is asking members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to amend their health care reform bill (H.R. 3200) to retain longstanding government policies on abortion and conscience rights.
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Even though President Barack Obama promised a “robust” conscience clause protecting health care workers, a former official of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says his $635 billion off-budget reserve fund includes principles that will deny health providers the freedom to choose not to kill unborn babies through abortion.
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The Obama administration has announced plans to rescind President Bush’s recently enacted job protections for health care workers who refuse to provide care they find objectionable for reasons of conscience. Even though the administration made the announcement quietly, a political fire storm has already erupted over the plans.
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Catholic League president Bill Donohue is urging the Bush Administration to move quickly to put in place new regulations that protect the conscious rights of health care workers before the radical pro-abortion policies of president-elect Obama administration and Congress make it impossible for Catholic health care facilities to remain open.
