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FOCA postcard campaign to send message of disapproval to Congress

By KARA KOCZUR, Globe staff reporter
(Email Kara)

It is the most radical abortion legislation ever considered in the United States. If passed, the Freedom of Choice Act, which would undo state abortion regulations and legalize abortion, would make Roe v. Wade look like a pebble next to a boulder.

To combat the possible passage of FOCA, the United States Catholic Bishops have launched a postcard campaign urging members of Congress to oppose the bill. For most parishes in the diocese, the campaign will take place this weekend, Jan. 31- Feb. 1.

Parishioners will each send three postcards: one to each of Iowa’s Senators, Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin, and another to their district Representative, either Steve King or Tom Latham.

“Hopefully we can set precedence for this Congress, that they know we're serious about this,” said Mark Thomason, pro-life contact person for the diocese. “That's really why we're sending it. We want to set precedence early."

What it is
If the bill passes, it would make it “the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman.”

The bill also states that a government may not “deny or interfere with a woman’s right to choose” to bear a child, terminate a pregnancy prior to viability or terminate a pregnancy after viability in order to protect the life or health of the mother. A government also isn’t allowed to discriminate against the carrying out of a woman’s right to choose regarding the “regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services or information.”

FOCA would do things never before done in the American legal system, Thomason said. If the government says abortion falls under people’s rights, then it will change the focus of how it previously has thought of abortion.

“Abortion is technically not legal,” he said. “Technically abortion is just decriminalized, meaning the courts. . . said, ‘We're not going to make a judgment on this action, either way.’ [They said] this action's a private matter between the doctor and a patient and the private matter can take place at any moment at any time."

However, with FOCA that would all change.

“This says, we know and we're going to do it,” Thomason said. “That's the big difference."
In an analysis of the bill done by the USCCB’s Office of the General Counsel, it determined that the bill would likely invalidate “a broad range of state laws if challenged under FOCA,” which include:

-informed consent laws
-parental notification laws
-laws promoting maternal health, if they result in an increased cost for abortions
-abortion clinic regulations, even those designed to make abortion safer for women
-government programs and facilities that pay for, provide, or insure childbirth or health care services generally, but not abortion
-laws protecting the conscience rights of doctors, nurses and hospitals, if those laws create even minimal delay or inconvenience in obtaining an abortion or treat abortion differently than other medical procedures
-laws prohibiting a particular abortion procedure, such as partial birth abortion
-laws requiring that abortions only be performed by a licensed physician
-laws prohibiting abortion after viability except when necessary to prevent significant, physical harm to the woman
-laws requiring a brief waiting period before an abortion is performed
-laws preventing post-viability sex-selection abortions where a mental health reason is asserted for the abortion
-laws requiring that abortion providers maintain certain records with respect to performed abortions
-laws preventing the carrying to term of a cloned human embryo, and quite possibly laws preventing the implantation of an existing cloned embryo for purposes of bearing the child (sometimes known as bans on “reproductive cloning”)

FOCA would also threaten federal laws, the most prominent ones being the ban on partial birth abortion, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which says violence committed against a pregnant woman is a crime against two people, and the Born Alive Infants Act, which extends legal protection to babies born alive after a failed abortion.

"By us saying no to FOCA, we're actually not trying to do anything against abortion, we’re actually just trying to keep the status quo," Thomason noted.

Possibility of passage
Many question whether the bill could even pass. Different versions of FOCA have been around since 1989 and failed to pass, but none as blatantly anti-life as the one at hand. While it hasn’t been introduced yet this session, with new members of Congress and a new president, who in July 2007 vowed at a Planned Parenthood Action Fund gathering that the first thing he’d do as president is sign the bill, the possibility of FOCA’s signage is enough to put pro-life advocates on edge.

"The question is the tone of the country,” Thomason said. “Could they get it passed? I don't know. I don't think so, but then again they have a super majority.”

President Obama has already made his first pro-abortion move. He reversed the Mexico City Policy on Jan. 23, allowing government funding to be given to organizations that perform and promote abortion as a family planning method in developing nations. In a USCCB press release the same day, Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, called the reversal “very disappointing.”

In fact, a USCCB survey released in December found that 82 percent of Americans believe abortion should be illegal under all circumstances or should have at least some restrictions to its legality. Under FOCA, there would be no more parental consent, no more parental notification and abortionists would no longer be required to give women information about the potential risks of abortion. And it would allow money from taxpayers to directly fund abortions.

“It would impose upon the entire country an abortion regime far worse than anything wrought by Roe or cases decided under it,” the General Counsel’s analysis stated. “It is difficult to recall any other single piece of legislation that, in a single stroke, would have such a comparable destructive impact on the government’s ability to regulate abortion.”

Many people are also concerned that the bill will force hospitals to have abortions, Thomason said. While FOCA won’t do that initially, he said, it’s a potential ramification. And it’s the ramifications that are creating worries, especially the ramifications for what it means to have the “freedom of choice.”

“If you look at the name, Freedom of Choice Act--now you have the right to choose what to do however you want, whenever you want, with whatever you want and by whomever you want, and no one can tell you otherwise,” Thomason said.

Legislation like FOCA would open the floodgates when it comes to marriage amendments, he added, teaching abortion and other morally unacceptable philosophies in the schools and anything else that promotes personal autonomy.

That is why it’s important for Catholics to participate in the postcard campaign.

"We want [Congress] to know we disagree with this legislation and anything like this legislation, whether it's under the name of FOCA or not,” Thomason said. “This style of legislation, we as Catholics disagree with. This just isn't being a good Catholic, but this is also being a good American.”

Thomason said 20,000 postcards have been ordered for the diocese. Depending on the parish, in some places parishioners will fill the cards out and hand them in at the same time to be mailed, while others will mail them from home. If parishes have leftover cards, he urges them not to throw them away.

“They are generic, [so] find your Lutheran, or Assembly of God or evangelical churches in your neighborhood, or people you know and give them the cards,” Thomason said. “They've already been paid for. Please, we really want to try to have 20,000 come from northwest Iowa."