Kennedy amendment threatens pro-life professionals

The Kennedy amendment is a fake -- despite its title, it does not protect conscience. Please contact your Senators and tell them you want real conscience protections in health-care reform.

The Freedom2Care alert has all the details:

Contacting your U.S. senators today can help stop a deceptive attack on life-affirming physicians, nurses and their patients who decline to participate in abortions.

Here's the problem: A U.S. Senate committee just passed a dangerously deceptive, conscience-threatening amendment to a healthcare reform bill. This is what they did:

• First, the Senate HELP committee voted down good amendments that would have truly protected physicians and nurses from being forced to participate in abortions.
  
  
• Then the committee passed Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy's deceptive amendment #205. This amendment pretends to protect conscience rights but would actually force healthcare professionals to participate in abortions:

1. Physicians and nurses would be forced to actually perform an abortion any time someone labeled the abortion an "emergency.
   
   Of course, "emergency" would include not just medical reasons, but also emotional, financial and virtually any other reason. Nearly every abortion in this way could be called an "emergency."
   
   
2. By requiring an official referral, physicians and nurses would be forced to lead the patient to an abortion clinic or abortion doctor.
   
   
3. The Kennedy amendment gives unqualified freedom and protection to those who perform abortions. But it coerces and harms those who ethically oppose abortion.

What you can do to stop this threat:

Use the Congressional Contacts links below to personally contact your senators' offices. Tell them you are a constituent and (if applicable) a medical professional.

1. Say that you OPPOSE Kennedy conscience amendment #205 to the healthcare bill, recently passed by the Senate HELP Committee.

2. Tell them to KEEP real protections for faith-based and pro-life healthcare professionals--such as the Hyde-Weldon Amendment and the Health and Human Services conscience regulation.

Congressional Contacts:

• Contact my Senator

• Congress and Legislation

Thank you for taking a stand for life!