Reducing Abortion or Making Things Worse?
March 17, 2009
A helpful editorial in Christianity Today suggests that the actions of pro-abortion politicians who say they want to "reduce abortion" are actually making things worse.
Recently 15 Democratic Senators reintroduced the Prevention First Act (s. 21), a bill ostensibly "to reduce unintended pregnancy, reduce abortions, and improve access to women's health care."Read the entire article HERE.
The problem? The bill actually promotes and funds abortion.
Among the bill's provisions is a requirement that any hospital receiving federal funds (including Catholic hospitals) must provide "emergency contraceptives" without charge to victims of sexual assault. These "contraceptives" are often intended to prevent ovulation or fertilization of an egg, but are also designed to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus.
Those who believe life begins at conception usually mean at fertilization. But their views don't count, says the Prevention First Act, which requires the hospitals to tell victims explicitly, "emergency contraception does not cause an abortion," even though, by most women's definition, it does.
Meanwhile, the Prevention First Act would dramatically increase funding for groups like Planned Parenthood. The organization already gets $335 million a year from the government. The funds cannot be used to perform abortions, but critics rightly point out that they indirectly subsidize abortions.
