Fight FOCA.

Even if you are pro-choice, I think there are very few people who would agree that legislation making partial-birth abortions legal, releasing abortion providers from having to get informed consent from patients, and forcing pro-life taxpayers to fund a practice that they find morally objectionable is NOT a good idea.

Although I largely like President-elect Obama, I am extremely disappointed to hear that he favors FOCA and plans to help it get passed while in office. Please take a moment to read this information and/or research FOCA yourself. If you feel as I do, that this is a radical and dangerous piece of legislation, please consider signing the online petition at www.fightfoca.com. (this website is also where I got the information below)

To read my personal statement of why I am pro-life, click here.

Love and grace and peace,
Nikki

What Does FOCA Say?

FOCA provides that "[i]t is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman."

Further, FOCA would specifically invalidate any "statute, ordinance, regulation, administrative order, decision, policy, practice, or other action" of any federal, state, or local government or governmental official (or any person acting under government authority) that would "deny or interfere with a woman's right to choose" abortion, or that would "discriminate against the exercise of the right . . . in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information."

Clearly, its reach is very broad. This single piece of legislation would apply to any federal or state law "enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or after the date of [its] enactment."

What is the Legal Impact of FOCA?

FOCA creates a new and dangerously radical "right." It establishes the right to abortion as a "fundamental right," elevating it to the same status as the right to vote and the right to free speech (which, unlike the abortion license, are specifically mentioned in the U.S. Constitution). Critically, in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court did not define abortion as a "fundamental right."¹⁰ And with the exception of one justice's attempt in 1983 to distort the Court's abortion jurisprudence by framing the abortion license as a "fundamental right," the Court has not subsequently defined abortion as a "fundamental right." Thus, FOCA goes beyond any Supreme Court decision in enshrining unlimited abortion-on-demand into American law.

FOCA would also subject laws regulating or even touching ..ion to judicial review using a "strict scrutiny" framework of analysis. This is the highest standard American courts can apply and is typically reserved for laws impacting such fundamental rights as the right to free speech and the right to vote. Prior to the Supreme Court's 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (which substituted the "undue burden" standard for the more stringent "strict scrutiny" analysis), abortion-related laws (such parental involvement for minors and minimum health and safety standards for abortion clinics) were almost uniformly struck down under "strict scrutiny" analysis. If enacted, FOCA would retroactively be applied to all federal and state abortion-related laws and would result in their invalidation.

What is the Practical Impact of FOCA?

In elevating abortion to a fundamental right, FOCA poses an undeniable and irreparable danger to common-sense laws supported by a majority of Americans. Among the more than 550 federal and state laws that FOCA would nullify are:

• Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003

• Hyde Amendment (restricting taxpayer funding of abortions)

• Restrictions ..ions performed at military hospitals

• Restrictions on insurance coverage for abortion for federal employees

• Informed consent laws

• Waiting periods

• Parental consent and notification laws

• Health and safety regulations for abortion clinics

• Requirements that licensed physicians perform abortions

• "Delayed enforcement" laws (banning abortion when Roe v. Wade is overturned and/or the authority to restrict abortion is returned to the states)

• Bans on partial-birth abortion

• Bans ..ion after viability. FOCA's apparent attempt to limit post-viability abortions is illusory. Under FOCA, post-viability abortions are expressly permitted to protect the woman's "health." Within the context of abortion, "health" has been interpreted so broadly that FOCA would not actually proscribe any abortion before or after viability.

• Limits on public funding for elective abortions (thus, making American taxpayers fund a procedure that many find morally objectionable)

• Limits on the use of public facilities (such has public hospitals and medical schools at state universities) for abortions

• State and federal legal protections for individual healthcare providers who decline to participate in abortions

• Legal protections for Catholic and other religiously-affiliated hospitals who, while providing care to millions of poor and uninsured Americans, refuse to allow abortions within their facilities

Notably, pro-abortion groups do not deny FOCA's draconian impact. For example, Planned Parenthood has explained, "FOCA will supercede anti-choice laws that restrict the right to choose, including laws that prohibit the public funding of abortions for poor women or counseling and referrals for abortions. Additionally, FOCA will prohibit onerous restrictions on a woman's right to choose, such as mandated delays and targeted and medically unnecessary regulations."

State FOCAs

Seven states have enacted versions of FOCA, further entrenching and protecting the "right to abortion" in those states: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, and Washington.

Conclusion

Clearly FOCA will not make abortion safe or rare – on the contrary, it will actively promote abortion and do nothing to ensure its safety – so, abortion advocates' unrelenting campaign to enact FOCA is a "wake-up call" to all Americans. If implemented, FOCA would invalidate common-sense, protective laws that the majority of Americans support. It will not protect or empower women. Instead, it would protect and promote the abortion industry, sacrifice women and their health to a radical political ideology, and silence the voices of everyday Americans who want to engage in a meaningful public discussion over the availability, safety, and even desirability of abortion.