Time for FOCA?
Mainstream media didn’t cover the March for Life. They didn’t report on the baby born alive in a Miami abortion clinic and thrown out in a plastic bag. They failed to cover the ‘Italian Terri Schiavo’ who died last week, Eluana Englaro, as Italian Parliament urgently worked to pass legislation to save her life.
They’ve tried to ignore the Freedom of Choice Act. But since the grassroots pro-life movement has engaged such a large public awareness campaign to resist its passage, they have to say something.
So the standard MO of the media when having to confront something they’d rather not, is to diminish its importance.
Like Time did.
In a Time magazine essay heavily biased against the pro-life viewpoint, Amy Sullivan details efforts by the American Catholic bishops to fight against adoption of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), and points out– accurately– that the legislation has not even been introduced. FOCA will provide a handy rallying point for pro-life lobbyists, she argued (overlooking the fact that pro-abortion lobbyists will be equally active), but the legislation is not expected to gain approval in Congress.
That’s another one. Lull them into a full sense of complacency. (…which isn’t working, either)
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A congressional staffer sent a note to Father Z regarding FOCA. I think it’s important that people such as yourself read what he/she has written:
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2009/01/are-pro-lifers-falling-into-the-foca-trap/
As a Congressional staffer, I am extremely concerned that we pro-lifers are falling into what I am starting to see as the “FOCA Trap.â€
If my fellow conservatives in Congress – policy makers who actually know what’s possible and what’s not – were speaking privately, I think they would admit that FOCA doesn’t have a snowball’s chance of ever even getting a committee hearing let alone being passed or signed into law. That is because it’s so radical that even most of the pro-abortion Democrats probably wouldn’t even support it.
Now, all this begs the question: why are all the bishops and most of the pro-life activists singularly focused on it?
The quick answer is because Obama said at some point that he would sign it into law. Then all the activists, talk radio, the USCCB, etc. all kicked into gear and started on the offense. But is that a good thing?
As I said, anyone serious who knows the Hill knows it will never pass – including Obama. So, while the wagons are all circled around FOCA, Obama, the Democrats and the pro-abortion lobby can pick apart the incremental progress we’ve made over the years on partial-birth, overseas abortion funding, funding for abortions on military bases, embryonic stem cell research, etc. And they’ll do it while we’re all signing post cards in church about FOCA. It’s a brilliant diversion.
Then, one day, Obama will come out against FOCA and say it’s too extreme. Then he’ll be heralded as a moderate, all while our progress is wiped out, and millions more babies are murdered.
Father, unless I’m very wrong, we are falling into the FOCA Trap and we must stop now, protect the gains we have made and fight like mad every time the next Mexico City fight comes instead of just saying “Oh well, we knew he’d do this.â€
We need to keep our eyes on the real enemy – and that is not FOCA.
I received that same note from a Congressional staffer. I understand the concerns, they are well founded. But the dedicated pro-life movement is not going to be fooled into a deception. It’s not ‘either/or’, it’s both/and. Nobody is going to have their back turned while the pro-abortion lobby passes new legislation by sleight of hand. Besides what’s reported and linked here in the Forum on federal funding for abortion overseas and embryonic stem cell research, etc., there are countless other sites and organizations dedicated to informing citizens of new and ongoing efforts to spread access to abortion, and to deny true universal human rights to every human being.
The new civil rights movement is about abortion and euthanasia, and every single effort to deny any class of human beings their dignity and rights to life and protection. Information is the weapon against the enemy of ignorance.
Thank you for your activism. We need it.