S. 1231, the Second Chance Reauthorization Act. Click to generate an email to your U.S. Senators urging passage of the bill. The SCRA, introduced June 20, 2011 by U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would continue programs Congress first authorized in 2007 – programs which have demonstrated success in reintegrating prisoners into their home communities and reducing recidivism, the rate at which released prisoners commit new crimes and are re-incarcerated.
CMC is a strong supporter of the bill. An electronic copy of it is available here.
Repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – Click on the alert to send an e-mail to your Member of Congress and U.S. Senators, asking them to repeal the health-insurance reform bill and pass a more reasonable bill in its place.
The more we learn about the 2010 legislation popularly known as Obamacare, the less we like it. On Aug. 1, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced rules concerning women’s well-care that the legislation gave her the authority to establish. They will mandate, effective August 2012, that a host of preventive care services be offered without deductibles, co-payments or coinsurance requirements – or, as advocates have said, “free” to the woman. Among the many problems with these rules are that some forms of birth control work by preventing the implantation of a fertilized egg in the womb – a type of abortion. Further, many Americans are morally opposed to contraception in any form; if they are business owners they should have the option not to cover contraceptives in their benefit plans. And these services won’t be “free;” someone will pay for them, most likely in the form of higher premiums.
Of greater concern to CMC are the federal lawsuits that challenge the individual mandate requirement of the bill, which will force all Americans to be covered by a health benefit plan. Lower courts have ruled that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, and those cases are at the appeals court stage now. It’s possible that the U.S. Supreme Court could decide on the constitutionality of the individual mandate – a key to funding the bill – by summer 2012, months before a presidential election.
Reminder of the United States’s Historic Friendship with Israel – Click on the link to send an email to President Barack Obama, reminding him of Israel’s strategic importance to the United States and asking him to adopt a more respectful attitude toward our only sure friend in the Middle East.
Respect for Rights of Conscience Act – Click on the link to ask your Member of Congress to sponsor this bill.
CMC supports this bill, which makes clear that coverage of contraceptives in health-benefit plans are optional according to the plan provider’s convictions. To require such coverage regardless of the provider’s moral views is a clear violation of religious liberties.
No Taxpayer Finding of Abortion Act – click on the link to ask your U.S. Senators to support this bill, H.R. 3.
CMC supports this bill, which would take a brilliant legislative idea from the 1970s, known as the Hyde Amendment, and make it a permanent part of federal law applying to all aspects of the government’s budget.
Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision made abortion legal across the nation, the late U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois introduced the amendment that bears his name. It barred the use of Medicaid funds to pay for abortions – appropriate, given the deep divisions among the electorate on the abortion issue even then.
While the Hyde Amendment was approved in Congress annually, H.R. 3 would make the concept a permanent part of federal law. The current law also has other provisions, such as conscience protections for health-care facilities and individual providers who decline to perform abortions, and the elimination of some tax benefits relating to abortion.
Thank Gov. Kasich for Signing Late-Term Abortion Ban – Click on the link to thank Ohio Gov. John Kasich for signing House Bill 78, which prohibits abortions after a doctor certifies that the unborn baby is viable, into law.
Support the ‘Heartbeat’ Bill – Click on the link to ask your state Senator to support House Bill 125, also known as the “Heartbeat Bill.” The bill would require any doctor intending to perform an abortion to first check for a fetal heartbeat. If there is, the abortionist must let the mother know this. And the bill prohibits the abortion of any “unborn human individual” once an ultrasound test has detected its fetal heartbeat. That normally occurs six to seven weeks into the mother’s pregnancy.
CMC is a strong supporter of the bill, which passed the Ohio House in June 2011.
