Times, ACLU: Catholic hospitals should be forced to perform abortions
December 23, 2010
The American Civil Liberties Union has again urged the federal government to compel Catholic hospitals to perform abortions that are deemed necessary to save the life of the mother. The ACLU’s latest letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cites Bishop Thomas Olmsted’s decision to revoke the Catholic status of a hospital in which an abortion took place.
“This confrontation never should have happened in the first place, because no hospital-- religious or otherwise-- should be prohibited from saving women’s lives and from following federal law,” the ACLU letter said.
A New York Times editorial blasted Bishop Olmsted and supported the ACLU’s position. “This is no small matter,” the newspaper’s editors stated. “Catholic hospitals account for about 15 percent of the nation’s hospital beds and are the only hospital facilities in many communities.”
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Further information:
- ACLU presses to ensure Catholic hospitals perform lifesaving abortions (Washington Post)
- Editorial: A Matter of Life or Death (New York Times)
- Obama administration considering ACLU’s request to mandate ‘emergency’ abortions at Catholic hospitals (CWN, 11/4)
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Posted by: Miss Cathy -
Dec. 24, 2010 2:35 PM ET USA
The ACLU has no interest in their so-called wall of separation between church and state. They simply want churches and all church institutions controlled by the state. Not only will the Catholic Hospitals close, doctors will leave their profession and nurses as well. Their only principled stance is to undermine the Catholic Church by making every principle we hold to be illegal.
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Posted by: hartwood01 -
Dec. 24, 2010 11:21 AM ET USA
If the ACLU thinks truly Catholic hospitals will begin killing babies under mandate, they are dreaming. We will get out of hospitals, all will suffer for it, atheism will have it's day and dark times will descend. As in Russia, the faith will not be stamped out, but we will suffer and pray for deliverance.
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Posted by: www.petersboat.net -
Dec. 24, 2010 12:10 AM ET USA
Very good, DrJazz. It is so important to appreciate that we are fighting against powers and principalities. Pray, everyone. Let us pray, most especially to Our Blessed Lady. She has been given these days by Our Father in Heaven and she is asking for our prayers. It is a great mystery, but she is saying it nonetheless - in some mysterious way, she is in need of our prayers to help her. Let us make time - on behalf the born and unborn - to pray.
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Posted by: Obregon -
Dec. 23, 2010 7:02 PM ET USA
The ACLU believes in "rights" only for liberal Americans but could care less about the right of the Catholic Church to demand that its institutions comply with Catholic teaching.
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Posted by: DrJazz -
Dec. 23, 2010 1:07 PM ET USA
For an organization that supposedly defends liberty, the ACLU uses the words "ensure" and "require" quite often when discussing Catholic hospitals. I guess Catholic hospitals are only free to do what the ACLU thinks should be done.
