Will Obama Close All Catholic Hospitals?

Policy - and rhetoric - often have ramifications far beyond the crowd applauding before you.

For instance - Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Chicago warned of "devastating consequences" to the health care system, insisting Obama could force the closure of all Catholic hospitals in the country.

How? Here's how:

If the Freedom of Choice Act passes Congress, and that's a big if, Obama has promised to sign it the second it hits his desk.

Here is Barack Obama at a Planned Parenthood Action Fund event in 2007, vowing, "The first thing I'd do as president is, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing I'd do."

Though it's often referred to as a mere codification of Roe, FOCA, as currently drafted, actually goes well beyond that: According to the Senate sponsor of the bill, Barbara Boxer, in a statement on her Web site, FOCA would nullify all existing laws and regulations that limit abortion in any way, up to the time of fetal viability. Laws requiring parental notification and informed consent would be tossed out.

While there is strenuous debate among legal experts on the matter, many believe the act would invalidate the freedom-of-conscience laws on the books in 46 states. These are the laws that allow Catholic hospitals and health providers that receive public funds through Medicaid and Medicare to opt out of performing abortions. Without public funds, these health centers couldn't stay open; if forced to do abortions, they would sooner close their doors. Even the prospect of selling the institutions to other providers wouldn't be an option, the bishops have said, because that would constitute "material cooperation with an intrinsic evil."

The bishops are not bluffing when they say they'd turn out the lights rather than comply....

Do Barack Obama and the Democrats realize the peril they will put the nation in, in order to fulfill their dream of a "McBortion's" on every street corner? Or will ideology trump reality, as it so often does with the Democratic party ("We have lost in Iraq" - Harry Reid)? Based on recent personnel moves, it seems as if the Democrats feel as if they still have a lot of unpaid debts to the abortion lobby....the Left forgets that despite the most recent election, America is still a center-right nation....

Incidentally - do the Democrats even believe there is a health care crisis in this country, or are they looking to create one in order to nationalize heathcare?

Do not underestimate the machinations of those who wish to accumulate power....