On April 15, 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a proposed rule that reverses the "Protect Life" regulation adopted during the Trump Administration, which had clearly separated abortion from family planning in the Title X family planning program.
On May 4th, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, along with the Southern Baptists Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the Catholic Medical Association, the National Association of Catholic Nurses-USA, and The National Catholic Bioethics Center, submitted joint comments pointing out several problems, including that the proposed rule would reintegrate abortion into what Congress intended to be a pre-pregnancy family planning program. HHS needs to hear that the proposed rule is terrible policy and must be changed. Submit your comments by Monday, May 17, 2021.
IMPORTANT NOTE: HHS counts all identical comments as one comment. To have your comment counted as a unique comment, you must add at least 31 words to the sample text provided in this alert.
Beginning in 1976, members of Congress and the White House have consistently supported the Hyde Amendment, a federal policy which has prevented taxpayer dollars from paying for elective abortions. This language has been approved every year since then, regardless of which political party has been in control of Congress or the presidency. In addition to wide legislative support, the general public is highly favorable of the Hyde Amendment and similar provisions that ensure taxpayer dollars do not fund abortion.
Despite public opinion, pro-abortion groups and certain powerful elected officials are campaigning to rescind the Hyde Amendment and to instead implement a policy that would require every federal health program to cover, and every federal health facility to provide, elective abortions. If Congress takes away the Hyde Amendment, billions of taxpayer dollars could go towards paying for abortion. It is critical for Catholics and others of goodwill to stand up for the unborn.
To learn more, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is hosting a webinar on Wednesday, May 12 at 2:00 PM (EDT) about how to activate your parish community to protect human life and prevent taxpayer funding of abortion. Click here to reserve your spot for next week's webinar.
Towards the end of April, the Michigan House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees approved their respective proposals for the 2021-2022 state budget. This week, the full House and Senate Appropriations Committees considered those proposals, made any needed amendments, and voted to move the bills forward. As mentioned in a previous message, Michigan Catholic Conference (MCC) has been actively following the state budget process and advocating for items of concern.
MCC is watching items such as competitive Robotics Grant funding for nonpublic schools, nonpublic school mandates, school safety grants, pregnancy care center funding, private foster care administrative rates, human trafficking intervention services, the children's clothing allowance, and more. Read in more detail about these and other items, which were retained this week at the Subcommittee-proposed funding levels.
