Action Needed on SB 3 / HB 1977, SB 732, & HB 1434

Coming from Bucks County, Senators Stewart Greenleaf (12th), Chuck McIlhinney (10th), Bob Mensch (24th), and Tommy Tomlinson (6th) are in the Pennsylvania Senate. Prior to the November 2010 elections, Senators Greenleaf (12th) & Mensch (24th) responded to a Catholic Standard & Times candidate questionnaire, while Senators McIlhinney (10th) - a professed Catholic - and Tomlinson (6th) did not. It should be noted that Senator Bob Mensch consistently answered Catholic Standard & Times questions in manners consistent with Catholic positions on the sanctity of human life, conscience protection, & marriage/family.

Coming from Bucks County, Representatives Paul Clymer (145th), Davis (141st), Farry (142nd), DiGirolamo (18th), Galloway (140th), O'Neill (29th), Petri (178th), Quinn (143rd), Santarsiero (31st), Watson (144th) are in the Pennsylvania Assembly. Prior to the November 2010 elections, Representatives DiGirolamo, Galloway, Clymer, and Petri (178th) responded to a Catholic Standard & Times candidate questionnaire, while Representatives Davis, Farry, O’Neill, Santarsiero, Quinn, and Watson (144th) did not. It should be noted that Representative John Galloway consistently answered in manners consistent with Catholic positions on the sanctity of human life, conscience protection, & marriage/family.


PENNSYLVANIA SENATE BILL 3 / HOUSE BILL 1977

Senators Mensch & Tomlinson were among those who introduced SB 3; Representative Quinn was among those who introduced the house version, HB 1977.

• The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") requires states "to operate and maintain 'health insurance exchanges' to provide a menu of low cost, government subsidized insurance plans to help otherwise uninsured people get access to necessary health care....To assure that elective abortion is not included in the Pennsylvania exchange, the Commonwealth must affirmatively opt out by passing a state law....This legislation is critical if the Commonwealth is to prevent public dollars from being spent on a program which includes elective abortion coverage" (Pennsylvania Catholic Conference).

Please ask your representative to support HB 1977, which will be up for a "third consideration" vote on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

PENNSYLVANIA SENATE BILL 732

• This "would hold freestanding abortion clinics to the same fire and safety standards, personnel and equipment requirements and quality assurance procedures as other freestanding ambulatory surgical facilities. Currently, the state’s abortion industry is exempt from commonsense safety standards that apply to other surgery centers" (Pennsylvania Catholic Conference).

Please contact your representatives, re: SB 732, asking:

1. Please support the Dec. 7, 2011 Baker Amendment,


2. Please oppose all weakening amendments and


3. Please support the final passage of S.B. 732.

If S.B. 732 passes the House on Dec. 13, the Pa. Senate Rules Committee could be considering it the next day. Contact the Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Sen. Dominic Pileggi (350 Main Capitol, Harrisburg 17120; 717-787-4712; dpileggi@pasen.gov) with the following message:

• "Please run S.B. 732 in the Senate Rules Committee as soon as possible."

Please also contact Senator Chuck McIlhinney (a professed Catholic), who is also on the Rules Committee, urging McIlhinney (cmcilhinney@pasen.gov) to support S.B. 732 and to oppose all weakening amendments.

PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE BILL 1434

During the 2010 legislative session, Senator Mensch co-sponsored a Marriage Protection Amendment (SB 707). Though Senator Greenleaf voted in its favor, SB 707 did not get past the Judiciary Committee. Neither Senator McIlhinney nor Senator Tomlinson were known to go to bat for marriage protection.

Representative Paul Clymer recently joined Representative Daryl Metcalfe in introducing HB 1434, "A Joint Resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, providing for marriage."

• "Pennsylvania’s Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is facing a constitutional challenge in Federal Court in Philadelphia....The Church’s vision of human sexuality in marriage is a great truth entrusted to us by God as reflected in the way he created us. Jesus Christ also revealed to us what God’s plan is for our sexuality and for marriage. We not only cherish this great truth but we must also speak up in its defense because we hold marriage to be a sacred reality....Contact your state legislators to encourage them to support a Pennsylvania Marriage Protection Amendment" [emphasis added] (Pennsylvania Catholic Conference).


• "This is the issue of our time....We have a duty as Catholics...to speak clearly about God's plan for human happiness. Part of that plan is traditional, faithful, Catholic/Christian marriage" (Archbishop Chaput, 7/19/11).

ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT ON CATHOLICS IN PUBLIC OFFICE

• "I think that people who make decisions contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in public ways, in matters of faith and morals, should decide for themselves not to receive communion. They've broken their communion with the church, and to receive communion means you're in communion with the church. If you're not, it's hypocritical to receive communion.
  
  "I think the best way to handle this is the way the bishops of the United States have agreed together to handle it, which is first of all to talk personally with those individuals who make decisions contrary to the teaching of the church. If they fully understand the teaching of the church and continue to act contrary to it, we should ask them not to receive communion.
  
  "If they persistently decide to do so in a way that causes scandal, which means leading other people into the same kind of sin, then I think it's necessary for the bishop to publicly say something" (Archbishop Chaput, 7/19/11).