SB 3/HB 818 & HR 940: We cannot allow our "pro life" elected officials to be "so fainthearted that the sound of a driven leaf will pursue them"!

In the last legislative session, Pennsylvania Senate Bill 3 and House Bill 1977 were designed to prevent tax payer funding of at least some "Obamacare" abortions. Though SB 3 passed on 6/7/11 and HB 1977 passed on 12/12/11, they were NEVER reconciled and sent for Governor Corbett's signature. Perhaps the most revealing comments on what transpired came from the ACLU!

• "the bill to mandate an ultrasound at least 24 hours before an abortion, hit a wall when it was voted out of committee, and the resulting controversy may have crippled the chances of the bills to block insurance coverage of abortion in the exchange created by healthcare reform, HB 1977 and SB 3" (6/4/12 ACLU memo to its board of directors). Translation? It seems that at least some of our "pro life" elected officials got scared off! 

How could any "pro life" elected official have been so easily scared off?  Well, it appears that moral cowardice is simply the "reward" (i.e., result) of failure to obey God's Law. While Leviticus 26 assures us of blessings "If you live in accordance with my statutes and are careful to observe my commandments," it also describes a pathetic lack of fortitude resulting from disobedience (i.e, "You will flee though no one pursues you....Those of you who survive in the lands of their enemies, I will make so fainthearted that the sound of a driven leaf will pursue them...stumbling over one another as if to escape a sword, while no one is after them—so helpless will you be to take a stand against your foes!")

Abortion opt out legislation is still SB 3 in the Senate, while it's now HB 818 in the House.  The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference reminds us that: "As the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Affordable Care Act and Pennsylvania has chosen not to set up a state exchange, Pennsylvania must take steps to prevent abortion coverage in the federal insurance exchanges used in PA. Please send a message by clicking here to your legislators requesting that this important pro-life issue be addressed as soon as possible!" (https://www.votervoice.net/PACC/Campaigns/25554/Respond)

We cannot allow Pennsylvania's "pro life" elected officials to again be "so fainthearted that the sound of a driven leaf will pursue them"! We cannot allow SB 3 and HB 818 to have the same fate as SB 3 and HB 1977!  Send our elected officials an email or give them a call (http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/#address).


On a federal level, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference asks us to "Send a Message to HHS in Support of Religious Liberty" (https://www.votervoice.net/PACC/Campaigns/30694/Respond).  Messages will go to the president, vice president, our two U.S. senators, and our U.S. representative supporting  H.R. 940, the Health Care Conscience Rights Act of 2013 (As of this writing, the ONLY representatives from Pennsylvania who are co-sponsors are Lou Barletta (11), Mike Kelly (3), Tom Marino (8), Tim Murphy (18), and Keith Rothfus (12)).