Wanted: Your participation in campaign to oppose federal abortion rights legislation

By Mary Ann Wyand

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops unanimously voted to initiate a pro-life campaign to prevent the passage of the proposed “Freedom of Choice Act” (FOCA) as part of official business during their annual fall meeting on Nov. 10-12 in Baltimore.

Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein is asking Catholics in central and southern Indiana to participate in a nationwide pro-life letter, postcard and telephone campaign on Jan. 24-25 to oppose this federal abortion rights legislation pending in Congress.

“This radical pro-abortion legislation would make abortion a fundamental right that would eliminate all existing pro-life laws and policies that have been enacted since 1973, the year the U.S. Supreme Court issued Roe v. Wade,” Archbishop Buechlein emphasized in a Dec. 3 letter to pastors and parish life coordinators of archdiocesan parishes.

“We need to keep in mind that FOCA would have devastating effects on our Catholic hospitals and social service agencies,” the archbishop explained. “Establishing abortion as a fundamental right precludes individuals and groups from exercising their right to freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.”

He said the archdiocesan Office for Pro-Life Ministry is providing instructions about the postcard and phone campaign to parishes.

“I ask all of us to voice clearly our opposition to policies, laws and executive orders that would ensure abortion as a fundamental right,” Archbishop Buechlein wrote, “and at the same time assault our constitutional rights as American Catholics.”

Servants of the Gospel of Life Sister Diane Carollo, director of the archdiocesan pro-life office, is distributing factual information for participants to use when calling and writing letters or postcards to President-elect Barack Obama and members of Congress in Washington, D.C.

This information is also available on the archdiocesan pro-life office’s Web site at www.archindy.org/prolife.

“The evil resulting from Roe v. Wade and the ongoing struggle to restore sanity to our legal system so that innocent human life will once again be protected by law is the focal point of the March for Life on Jan. 22, 2009,” Sister Diane explained in the January-February issue of News Notes published by the pro-life office.

“This year, however, Americans will also be confronted by the most radical piece of legislation that is being lobbied for by pro-abortion groups,” she noted. “… The ‘Freedom of Choice Act’ was co-sponsored by President-elect Barack Obama. The frightening reality is that President-elect Obama promised Planned Parenthood that he would strive to make FOCA the law of the land.”

Sister Diane explained that “if enacted, FOCA would attempt to prevent Catholics from practicing their faith according to their consciences, which should be formed by Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church, and not by politicians, Catholic or otherwise, who instead may worship a particular political party’s platform on abortion rights.”

The National Committee for a Human Life Amendment, on behalf of the U.S. bishops, is distributing the pro-life postcard campaign materials to every diocese in the country.

“We must not fail to make our Catholic voice heard in Washington,” Sister Diane emphasized. “If we fall silent on our opposition to FOCA and it becomes the law of the land, we will be silenced as Christians and alienated from the American political and legal process in the near future.” †