New Ulm Diocese Council of Catholic Women

“Freedom of Choice Act”
FOCA

POST CARD CAMPAIGN:

Please participate in the forthcoming USCCB Committee on Pro-life Activities postcard campaign to your U.S. senators and representatives in opposition to the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). FOCA would do away with state laws on abortion, including laws mandating parental involvement, or banning partial birth abortion. It would threaten Catholic health care institutions and Catholic Charities. The campaign will be promoted in the Diocese of New Ulm on the weekend of January 24-25, 2009. Post cards will be sent to each parish – look for them and be sure they get distributed.

NOVENA:

Friends, this novena is a good thing, as every prayer is a good thing. But it is proposed on the assumption that Congress will pass the FOCA before January 22, which is not certain. The novena then can be said for two intentions:
1) that Congress does not pass FOCA, and
2) if Congress does, President Obama will not sign it.
God bless you, Fr. Tom H.

If you are opposed to abortion, please read the information below and join us in prayer and fasting January 11-19, 2009.

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) will be signed into law if Congress passes it on January 21-22, 2009. The FOCA is the next sick chapter in the book of abortion. If signed into law, all limitations on abortion will be
lifted, resulting in the following:

1) All hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, will be required to perform abortions upon request. If this happens, Bishops vow to close down all Catholic hospitals – more than 30% of all hospitals in the U.S.
2) Partial birth abortions will be legal and have no limitations.
3) All U.S. taxpayers will be funding abortions.
4) Parental notification of abortions on minors will no longer be required (regardless of age).
5) The estimated number of increase in abortions is 100,000 annually.

Just as important, the government will now have control in the issue of abortion. This could result in a future amendment that would force women by law to have abortions in certain situations (rape, Down Syndrome
babies, etc) and could even regulate how many children women are allowed to have.

Needless to say this information is disturbing, but sadly true. As Catholics, as Christians, as anyone who is against the needless killing of innocent children, we must stand as one. We must stop this horrific act before it becomes a law.

PLEASE JOIN US IN saying a novena (9 days of prayer ) and fasting from January 11-19. The prayer of choice is the rosary for the special intention of stopping the FOCA. We hope and pray this will branch and blossom to become a global effort.

Please do the following 3 things:

1) Pass this letter to 5 or more people within 3 days or less (so as many as possible can start praying on
January 11)
2) Say a novena from January 11-19, asking God to prevent the FOCA from becoming law in the U.S.
3) Fast at least 2 days during this novena or perform some definite penance for this intention.

Remember that with God all things are possible and the power of prayer is undeniable. If you are against the senseless killing of defenseless children, please join us in prayer and fasting. May God bless you abundantly.

“The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing that I’d do.” — Senator Barack Obama, speaking to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, July 17, 2007

Sign this petition in opposition to FOCA

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Freedom of Choice Act (H.R. 3719/S. 2020) is a bill in the United States Congress which, if enacted, would abolish all restrictions and limitations on the right of women in the United States to have an abortion, whether at the State or Federal level.

Described by NARAL Pro-Choice America president Nancy Keenan as a bill to “codify Roe v. Wade,”[1] opponents of the bill assert that[2] that it would, if passed, invalidate every restriction on the abortion of a fetus before the stage of viability, even those previously found consistent with Roe v. Wade by the United States Supreme Court, such as parental notification laws, waiting periods, requirements of full disclosure of the physical and emotional risks inherent in abortion, or restrictions on certain late-term abortion techniques. In addition, it would force the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which restricts the use of Federal funding for abortions, and invalidate the ability of religiously-based hospitals or clinics to refuse to perform abortions based on the violation of their consciences.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., the Democratic 2008 Presidential candidate, became a co-sponsor of the 2007 Senate version of the bill (S. 1173). Responding to a question regarding how he would preserve reproductive rights in a speech given to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund on July 17, 2007, he declared “The first thing I’d do, as president, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing that I’d do.”[3]