Status of Federal Legislation that Impacts Life Issues
Make calls to demand that Federal funding of Planned
Parenthood be stopped
Find your Districts
& Legislators (enter your 9-digit zip code)
United States House of
Representatives
Email
Addresses for U.S. Congress
Mark Kirk (202-224-2854) and Richard Durbin
(202-224-2152) (U.S. Senators for Illinois) can also be reached via the Capitol
switchboard at 1-202-224-3121 or by email using the United States Senate web site. In
Illinois, call Senator Mark Kirk at (312) 886-3506 and Senator Richard Durbin at (312)
353-4952.
Legislative Action Center (For additional information on legislation)
President Obama can be reached via
the White House Comment Line at (202) 456-1111, or by email at comments@whitehouse.gov,
or by fax at 202-456-2461.
Important Federal bills in the 113th Congress for 2013/2014 are
listed below
Health Care Conscience Rights Act (H.R. 940)
Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) introduced the Health Care Conscience Rights Act
(H.R. 940). This measure contains the conscience protection language that is needed as a
way to correct the serious deficiencies in the Administration’s health care mandate.
Members of Congress are asked to support the Health Care Conscience Rights
Act and are urged to include the bill in “must-pass” legislation.
The Health Care Conscience Rights Act would amend ObamaCare to protect
conscience rights and religious liberty. The recent mandate finalized by Health and
Human Services (HHS) to require all health insurance plans to cover
"preventative" care that includes sterilization, abortion inducing drugs, and
contraception makes it urgent to pass this legislation. Get
more details. Ask your Representative to support H.R. 940 and to
get its provisions included in "must pass" legislation. Send
emails sponsored by USCCB here,
IFI here,
and NRLC here.
A video from Americans United for Life (AUL) presents the issue of
conscience rights, in response to the distracting focus being placed on contraception.
Click here to watch the video.
Blocking abortion funding in 2013 continuing resolution and the 2014 budget
Efforts must continue to reduce
abortion funding during work on any continuing resolutions to fund the government for 2013
and in the budget for fiscal year 2014. Encourage the House of Representatives to
include Rep. Diane Black's amendment to prevent government funding of Planned
Parenthood. If House leaders hold their ground, the Senate will be forced to accept
at least some of these Pro-Life provisions to reach agreement on a 2014 budget. Call
your U.S. representative to tell them not to fund Planned Parenthood or other abortion
providers in the continuing resolution for 2013 and in the 2014 budget.
Urge senators to oppose CEDAW
The U.S. Senate could vote on whether to ratify a treaty called the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Some international bodies have interpreted this treaty to prohibit any limitations on
abortion. U.S. ratification of CEDAW could have serious impacts on state and federal
laws limiting abortions because the treaty has already been construed to condemn virtually
all limits on abortion by the U.N. committee that is charged with enforcing it, by the
European Parliament, and by pro-abortion litigating groups.
What is CEDAW? CEDAW is a treaty that was adopted
by the U.N. General Assembly in 1979. Since then it has been ratified by 185
nations, but never by the United States. President Jimmy Carter signed the treaty
and sent it to the Senate in 1980, but the Senate has never voted on whether to ratify it
– in part because of serious questions about the impact it could have in many areas
of U.S. law, including laws pertaining to abortion. Although the CEDAW does not
mention the word “abortion,” Article 12 does require signing nations to
“eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to
ensure, on a basis of equality between men and women, access to health care services,
including those related to family planning.” Since about 1995, Article 12 and
other provisions have been creatively interpreted by official bodies, ranging from the
European Parliament to the UN CEDAW Committee, to condemn limitations on abortion, on
grounds that any restrictions on abortion constitute discrimination against women.
Urge senators to
oppose Convention on the Rights of the Child
The U.S. Senate could vote on whether to ratify a treaty called the
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This treaty poses serious threats to
parental authority and has even been used to support abortion rights. Get more details.
Health Care "Reform" Bill -- passed in 2010; needs to be defunded (since repeal
is not feasible at this time)
SUMMARY: Strategy for passage of health care "reform"
ultimately led to a push for the House to pass the Senate bill (H.R. 3590) with no changes
and then use "reconciliation" to make some limited changes afterwards. Tragically,
H.R. 3590 was passed by the House of Representatives on 3/21/10 and has become law.
Also, use the following web sites to oppose health care
legislation: IFI,
NRLC, stoptheabortionmandate.com, freedom2care.org, and/or NCHLA.
Background information: Senator Harry Reid (on 11/18/09) unveiled his Senate
bill (H.R. 3590) that includes massive
abortion subsidies and mandates and health
care rationing. Even though it takes a different approach than the bill passed
by the House of Representatives (H.R. 3962), it does nothing to resolve the many concerns
about the anti-life direction of health care "reform" in Congress. With
Senate passage of H.R. 3590 on 12/24/09, the next step may be an attempt to get H.R. 3590
passed in the House since it appears no conference committee will be used to resolve
differences between the two bills to create a final bill that could be voted on by both
the House and Senate.
With passage of a health care "reform" bill by both the House
(H.R. 3962) and the Senate (H.R. 3590), the differences between these two bills were
expected to be resolved by creating a final bill that would be voted on by both the House
and Senate. Since the Senate bill provides government funding of abortion, which is
supported by the Obama administration and leaders of Congress, it was expected that the
final bill would be closer to the Senate bill than the House bill, which included the
Stupak Amendment to prevent government funding of abortion. However, even with the
Stupak Amendment, at this point any final bill would amount to a Federal Government
takeover of health care.
The current attempt in Congress to reform health care amounts to a
government takeover of the health care system. These bills to "reform"
health care are not an effective solution. They will create many more problems than
they will solve including: higher costs, lower quality, fewer options, rationing of
service, encouraging euthanasia and assisted suicide, funding abortion, etc.
Any reforms must never include government control of the health care
system. The current approach for health care being crafted by Congress is totally
unacceptable. By funding
abortion coverage and restricting care options for the elderly and disabled, there is
blatant disrespect for life of our most vulnerable citizens. Get even more details
here:
Review the "final" House bill (H.R. 3962), named "Affordable Health Care for
America Act". This massive 1990-page health care bill was amended with the
Stupak Amendment to prevent government-funded abortion, but has a potential
physician-assisted suicide loophole. H.R. 3962 still contains many of the issues
revealed in an analysis of the earlier House bill (H.R. 3200) that can be found
here:
|