{"id":566,"date":"2008-07-18T16:24:52","date_gmt":"2008-07-18T23:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=566"},"modified":"2018-03-05T21:56:25","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T05:56:25","slug":"cardinal-rigali-urges-congress-to-respect-conscience-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=566","title":{"rendered":"Cardinal Rigali Urges Congress To Respect Conscience Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEWS RELEASE<\/strong>
\nOffice of Media Relations 08-106
\nFor Immediate Release
\nJuly 18, 2008<\/p>\n

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops<\/a><\/p>\n

Responding to objections to anticipated federal HHS\u00a0 regulations protecting health care providers’ fundamental rights of conscience,\u00a0 Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the United States\u00a0 Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, today wrote to\u00a0 all members of Congress defending “efforts to reaffirm and implement laws on\u00a0 conscience protection.”<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/em> on July 15 reported that it had obtained an alleged draft of regulations soon to be issued\u00a0 by the Department of Health and Human Services, to clarify and enforce federal\u00a0 laws on respect for the moral and religious convictions of health care personnel\u00a0 in programs receiving federal funds.\u00a0 Pro-abortion organizations and some\u00a0 members of Congress have already attacked the as-yet-unpublished regulations,\u00a0 saying they are unwarranted and could limit “access” to abortion and birth\u00a0 control.<\/p>\n

Reacting to these criticisms, Cardinal Rigali said this “should be a\u00a0 matter of agreement among members who call themselves ‘pro-life’ and\u00a0 ‘pro-choice’: the freedom of health care providers to serve the public without\u00a0 violating their most deeply held moral and religious convictions on the sanctity\u00a0 of human life.”<\/p>\n

“Congress has passed numerous laws protecting rights of\u00a0 conscience in health care, beginning in 1973,” said the Cardinal, and these laws\u00a0 address sterilization and other issues in addition to abortion.\u00a0 “The\u00a0 critics’ surprise that conscience protection may apply beyond the specific issue\u00a0 of abortion seems based on a lack of knowledge of existing federal law… If the\u00a0 Administration is preparing regulations along these lines, it would simply be\u00a0 performing its proper task in an area of law where that is long overdue.”<\/p>\n

Cardinal Rigali said the charge that respect for conscience rights undermines\u00a0 “access” to abortion and other procedures contradicts pro-abortion groups’\u00a0 longstanding claim that only “a tiny minority of religious zealots” object to\u00a0 their agenda.\u00a0 In any case, he said, “patients with pro-life convictions,\u00a0 including women who require a physician’s care for themselves and their unborn\u00a0 children during pregnancy, deserve ‘access’ to health care professionals who do\u00a0 not have contempt for their religious and moral convictions or for the lives of\u00a0 their children.”<\/p>\n

“This issue,” he said, “provides self-described ‘pro-choice’\u00a0 advocates with an opportunity to demonstrate their true convictions… [I]s the\u00a0 ‘pro-choice’ label a misleading mask for an agenda of actively promoting and\u00a0 even imposing morally controversial procedures on those who conscientiously hold\u00a0 different views?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEWS RELEASE Office of Media Relations 08-106 For Immediate Release July 18, 2008 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Responding to objections to anticipated federal HHS\u00a0 regulations protecting health care providers’ fundamental rights of conscience,\u00a0 Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the United States\u00a0 Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, today wrote to\u00a0 all … Continue reading “Cardinal Rigali Urges Congress To Respect Conscience Rights”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[643,7,10,28],"tags":[2084],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-catholicism","category-law","category-news-releases","category-usa","tag-us-conference-of-catholic-bishops-usccb"],"yoast_head":"\r\nCardinal Rigali Urges Congress To Respect Conscience Rights - 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