Bishop Salvatore R. Matano has joined New York Archbishop Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, who is chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, in calling all Catholics to push for passage of the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act.
This act, known as the ANDA, would provide protection to individual and institutional health-care providers who object to being involved in abortion. The act is part of the Health Care Conscience Rights Act (H.R. 940/S. 1919), which in turn is included in the House of Representatives’ Labor/Health and Human Services appropriations bill for the coming year.
"Passage of this legislation is needed to protect doctors and nurses from being forced to take innocent human life against their conscience, and to free Catholic and other institutions in California (and in the future, other states) from government policies demanding their involvement in abortion and abortion coverage," Cardinal Dolan wrote in a Nov. 20 letter to the nation’s bishops.
Congress must agree on the federal year-end spending bill by Dec. 11, so Cardinal Dolan and Bishop Matano are urging Catholics to take immediate action by visiting http://nchla.org. From there they can send e-mail messages to their federal legislators, urging them to include ANDA in the final appropriations bill.
