Legislative News

HHS Proposed Regulation Changes Distort Religious Liberty
Specifically, the draft proposed regulations

• PERMIT institutions as well as individuals to refuse to provide women access to contraceptive services and information.

• PERMIT health care providers to refuse to perform any service they deem morally objectionable - which raises critical questions about access to all health care services.

• REDEFINE pregnancy as beginning with fertilization of the egg - counter to the government's own longstanding policy, as well as that of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), which state that pregnancy begins with the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus.

 • REDEFINE abortion to include common methods of contraception which may work by interfering with implantation. Birth control pills and IUDs could be disallowed.

• CONFLICT with requirements of the Title X family planning program to ensure that women have access to a broad range of contraceptive options and that pregnant women receive non-directive counseling upon request.

• TRUMPS state laws that protect women's access to reproductive health care, including those requiring health insurance plans that provide drug benefits to include coverage of contraception; laws that require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape survivors; and laws that require pharmacies to fill patients' valid medical prescriptions.

• WASTES tax payers' money by allowing crisis-pregnancy centers to receive public money to fund their deceptive scare tactics to steer women away from contraception and abortion.

There is no single “religious” view on health care issues. Timely and dignified access to health care is a broad moral and religious issue among many faiths.

In matters of faith, one person’s conscience ends where another’s begins. We believe strongly in individual religious liberty; at the same time, we believe that society has a responsibility to ensure that exercise of this liberty does not harm others. We wish to correct the implication that only one religious view is at stake in the regulation of health care and the dispensation of medial treatment, and to correct the implication that religion and religious organizations broadly oppose any and all regulations or standards that touch the exercise of religious beliefs. Religious liberty and government regulation cannot always be mutually exclusive.

Health care providers have rights and religious freedoms but patients have rights and are entitled to protection of their religious and ideological freedom too. Inevitably, beliefs will diverge. Protection of religious freedom for all is especially vital in health care because religious and personal beliefs regarding health care matters are widely diverse. Some providers argue for their own protection but not the same protection for the convictions of other members of the population, most notably patients. The tremendous disparity in beliefs regarding health care also supports government regulation that accommodates all religious and personal views and practices to the greatest extent possible while preventing harm to others.

RCRC is committed to universal quality health care, respect for persons as moral agents, respect for evidence-based medicine free of sectarian influence and respect for separation of church and state. For these reasons, we strongly urge the Administration to refrain from issuing these regulations.

Please contact President Bush and Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt today to express your opposition to these one-sided regulations that unjustly favor providers who object to certain reproductive services at the expense of women who need and deserve them. 

Supporting Embryonic Stem Cell Research - Supporting Hope

Clergy support embryonic stem cell research ballot proposal

“Embryos are created in the hopes of bringing life and love into the world. Using embryos that would be destroyed otherwise to work for healing and renewed life for those with devastating diseases is I believe a continuation of those first impulses of life and love and an appropriate faith-filled response.”

Reverend Karen Gale, East Lansing

 

“Jewish tradition teaches that preserving life and promoting health are among the most precious of values. These values have informed our affirmative commitment to medical science throughout the ages. Judaism has always encouraged scientific and medical advances. Jewish tradition requires that we use all available knowledge to heal the ill.” Rabbi Amy Bigman, East Lansing

 

The Michigan Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice endorses the ballot initiative to legalize embryonic stem cell research in Michigan. As people of faith, we have deep respect for human life. We believe, as do most authorities and commissions that have addressed the issue that human embryos have the potential of personhood and, as such, they deserve respect.

However, excess embryos slated for destruction must not be placed above persons whose pain and suffering might be alleviated due to the knowledge gained from studying embryonic cells. Embryonic stem cell research can help us find treatments and cures that could improve the quality of life for millions in Michigan. Many believe that this pursues the biblical mandate to care for each other, to tend to the sick and heal those in need.

• As people of faith, we have deep respect for human life. We believe, as do most authorities and commissions that have addressed the issue, which human embryos have the potential of personhood and, as such, they deserve respect.
  
• Excess embryos slated for destruction must not be placed above persons whose pain and suffering might be alleviated due to the knowledge gained from studying embryonic cells.

• Embryonic stem cell research can help us find treatments and cures that could improve the quality of life for millions in Michigan. Many believe that this pursues the biblical mandate to care for each other, to tend to the sick and heal those in need.

• Placing obstacles in the way of life-saving research with embryonic stem cells that are already created and will be destroyed is misguided. In the case of existing embryos that will be destroyed, providing adequate federal funding for research is, in our view, fully consistent with respect for human life.

Religious Groups Supporting Embryonic Stem Cell Research
United Church of Christ
Presbyterian Church ( USA)
United Methodist Church
Episcopal Church
Society for Humanistic Judaism
Union for Reform Judaism
Conservative Judaism
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America
Unitarian Universalist Association

Time to get REAL

As faith communities, we take seriously our duty to instill in young people a set of religious and moral values that will help guide them to responsible life choices.  Just as this is our mission, it is the role of the government to ensure that our children receive the facts - unblemished by ideology - that will protect them from disease and unintended pregnancy.  

In recent years, hundreds of millions of federal dollars have been poured into abstinence-only education programs which are ineffective at reducing sexual activity.  More importantly, these programs can be dishonest and scientifically inaccurate.  We believe there is no justification for endangering the health and well-being of the young people of our nation for the sake of a very parochial moral vision.  There is very strong and extensive religious opposition to these abstinence programs and in support of comprehensive sexuality education. 

The Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act is federal legislation that would provide money for programs that provide comprehensive, medically accurate, age-appropriate sexuality education. While teaching that abstinence is the only sure way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, it would also teach the benefits of contraception and protection. REAL would also teach negotiation skills for young peopel and encourage family communication about sexuality.

Carolyn Kilpatrick and Sander Levin are the only representatives from Michigan who have agreed to co-sponsor REAL. Tell Michigan's senators and other congressional representatives it's time for REAL.

For current Michigan legislative news, please see Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan's excellent summary, here

For current events in the US court system, in Congress, in other states, and in the executive branch, see the Call to Justice index page on the National RCRC site, here.