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Catholic News Service |
Washington --- It's one thing to talk about abortion as a "choice." It's quite another to offer pregnant women in crisis the financial, social and medical resources they need when they choose to have their baby.
"If today's women need choices, we must offer them real choices," said Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-PA, at a September 21 press conference on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC announcing introduction of the Women and Children's Resources Act, which would establish an $85 million formula grant program for programs which offer women alternatives to abortion.
The bill is co-sponsored in the U.S House of Representatives by Representative Mary Bono, R-CA., and will be introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senator Rick Santorum, R-PA.
Santorum said the legislation "offers compassionate, life-affirming choices" and "seeks to reach out to women, particularly low-income women, letting them know that they don't have to face this situation alone."
Bono noted that the legislation will not restrict abortion but will give pregnant women "the information they need to make a choice that is best for them."
In addition, she said, it will "provide funding for important programs and resources that will assist those women who choose to go forward with their pregnancies."
Under terms of the legislation, federal funding would go to states through a formula based on the number of out-of-wedlock births and abortions in the state, compared to the national total. States would distribute the funds directly to crisis pregnancy centers, maternity homes and adoption services on a fee-for-service basis.
Among the services that would be funded by the Women and Children's
Resources Act are:
--- Testing for pregnancy and follow-up services.
--- Adoption information
--- Maternity and baby clothing, food, diapers and other baby items.
--- Prenatal and postpartum health care.
--- Information and education on fetal development, health and nutritional
needs of pregnant and postpartum women, childbirth, parenting, pregnancy
during adolescence, substance abuse and sexually transmitted diseases.
--- Information, education and counseling on maintaining abstinence
from sexual activity.
--- Referrals for other services, items and assistance regarding physical
or mental health, food, clothing, housing, education and vocational training.
Low-income women would be given priority for the services, but the grants will not be exclusively means-tested.
Only agencies which offer alternatives to abortion would be eligible for the funding, and grant recipients could not promote, refer or counsel for abortion.
"The Women and Children's Resources Act seeks to improve women's health and offer a woman compassionate choices when she finds herself facing a unplanned pregnancy," Pitts said. "This is legislation that can frankly bring pro-life and pro-choice together to offer real solutions to women --- on common ground."
The legislation is modeled after Pennsylvania's Project Women in Need, or WIN, a statewide network of pregnancy centers, maternity homes and adoption agencies that provides comprehensive, life-affirming alternatives to abortion to pregnant women and assistance to parents with infants.
Pennsylvania now has 90 WIN centers which receive approximately $3.1 million a year from the state Department of Public Welfare. The centers often receive 500 phone calls per week.
In "Faithful for Life," their reflection for Respect Life Sunday in 1995, the bishops pledged to do whatever they could for pregnant women seeking alternatives to abortion --- and to continue that assistance after the child is born.
"We repeat together what we have stated individually: no woman in need with a child, born or unborn, whether she is Catholic or not, should feel herself without help," they said. "We pledge the heart and hands of the church to help mothers and fathers in need to find pregnancy counseling, pre- and postnatal care, housing and material support, and adoption services.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 24, No 40,
page 11, dated October 7, 1999.
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E-mail:
letters@catholicherald.com
Fax: 703/524-2782;
Editorial: 703/841-2590;
Advertising: 703/841-2594;
Circulation: 703/841-2565
A note from the Web Master:
It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. Let us not forget that ordinary everyday run of the mill abortion is also murder. We must understand that aborting the life of a baby is murder no matter the method. Because one method of abortion seems to be horrible does not make the other methods less so. We should be horrified and sickened by any abortion regardless of the method. The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly:
"Thou shalt not kill."
A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul.
Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any abortion occurs. Please
contact both of your Senators and Representative, via letter or phone,
to let them know how horrified you are that abortions are legal and to
stop, once and for all, Partial-Birth abortions and all other abortions
as soon as possible.
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