All of us need to take a good long look in the mirror....

Your Excellency:

The long, sad tale of Pennsylvania Senate Bill 3 starts before your September 2011 arrival in Philadelphia.  Designed to prevent Pennsylvania tax payer funding of abortion in "Obamacare," SB 3 was approved by the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee in January 2011 and passed by the full Senate in June 2011, by a vote of 37 to 12.  Rather than simply put SB 3 up for a vote in the House, an identical bill - HB 1977 - was instead put up for a vote and passed by the House in December 2011, by a vote of 146 to 45. 

With the promise of the governor's signature, pro life advocates assumed that the House and Senate would work together and get this abortion "opt out" legislation signed!  Yet for all intents and purposes, the story ended in December 2011.  The legislative session ended last week, and Pennsylvania still lacks "opt out" legislation - despite its being passed by the Senate and the House and having the promise of the governor's signature!  Truth be told, we were played for fools.  When our Lord told us to be "shrewd as serpents and simple as doves" (Matthew 10: 16), He certainly was not advocating gullibility.


I believe that each and every one of us needs to take a good long look in the mirror.  How is it that we let this gift-wrapped opportunity get by us?  Well, a lot of Catholics missed the boat on SB 3's importance.  I believe that the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference's advocacy on this matter should have been abundantly more powerful and more visible.  I also believe that when we have providers of abortifacients advertising in parish bulletins and practitioners of absolutely immoral practices allowed priveleges in our Catholic hospitals, the credibility and seriousness of our commitment to human life comes across as suspect.  Catholics get the notion that this is simply no big deal.   Your Excellency, I am requesting that you release a statement, to condemn the disingenuousness of what transpired with SB 3.

Sincerely,