c. 1996 Religion News Service
Abortion opponents offended by Clinton veto threat
(RNS)-Abortion opponents said Wednesday (Feb. 28) they are offended that President Clinton is asking Congress to soften a bill that would ban a controversial late-term abortion procedure except in cases when the life of the mother is at stake.
In a letter to Congress, Clinton said he found the controversial procedure”very disturbing.”But he said he wanted Congress to rewrite the legislation so that it allows exceptions where the”health”as well as the life of the mother is at risk.
The procedure is known medically as”intact dilation and evacuation.”Abortion opponents call it”partial-birth”abortion because under the procedure, the fetus is partially extracted feet first, and the skull is collapsed by suctioning out the brain to make it easier for the fetus to pass through the birth canal.
Both the House and Senate have passed versions of the bill prohibiting the procedure and Republican leaders are at work on reconciling the differences. Clinton’s letter is an effort to influence that process so that Congress gives him a bill that he will sign rather than veto.”I have studied and prayed about this issue and about families who must face this awful choice for many months,”Clinton’s letter said.
Abortion opponents, however, reacted with dismay.”We are deeply offended by the president’s decision to support a procedure in which doctors mostly deliver a live human child, then brutally kill that child before completing the delivery,”said Helen Alvare, director of information and planning of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.
She accused Clinton of being”disingenuous”by urging a health exception because legally”health”means”any abortion a woman elects to have.” Gracie Hsu, policy analyst at the Family Research Council, a Washington-based conservative advocacy group, said the legislation passed by Congress already includes an exception to save the life of the mother. She said Clinton’s suggested amendment is so broad”it would make all partial-birth abortions acceptable.” Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, one of the nation’s largest anti-abortion organizations, said Clinton was creating a”smokescreen”to preserve”unrestricted abortion … behind the facade of a symbolic limitation.” Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, an advocacy group that supports legal abortion, told The New York Times the Clinton letter amounts to a veto threat.”The important point (of the letter) was that the president needed to veto this legislation because it is indeed a violation of the constitutional right of women to choose,”she said.
If the bill becomes law, it will be the first time Congress has acted to ban a specific abortion procedure since 1973, when a Supreme Court ruling made most abortions legal.
Senators and religious leaders urge TV execs to reduce sex and violence
(RNS)-A broad spectrum of religious leaders joined with two Democratic senators Wednesday (Feb. 28) to urge television executives to go beyond voluntarily rating their programs and instead commit to reducing violence and sex in their shows.”The sad fact is if you rate garbage it’s still garbage,”Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said one day before top television executives were due to meet with President Clinton and were expected to announce a preliminary agreement on a TV ratings system.
Even the so-called V chip-a computerized chip that would alert parents to violence in shows- will be insufficient if the content of the programming does not change, Lieberman said. Proposed telecommunications legislation would require the chip in new TV sets.
He said TV programming was a religious issue because”God requires us to do all we can to have God’s creatures treated with respect … and far too much current TV programming degrades people.” Lieberman was joined by Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., conservative Catholic political activist William Bennett and nearly a dozen representatives of both liberal and conservative religious groups.
Among the groups represented were the Christian Coalition, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the American Muslim Council, the U.S. Catholic Conference, the National Council of Churches, the United Church of Christ and the National Association of Evangelicals.
Rabbi David Saperstein, a Reform Jew, said the diversity of theological opinion represented at the Capitol Hill news conference underscored the widespread the”national disgust”with gratuitous sex and violence on television.
Nunn said the effort to alter the content of TV programming was a”battle for the hearts and minds of our children, and therefore a battle for the future of America”because of television’s power to influence thoughts and behavior.
GOP lawmakers propose”faith-based”tax breaks to ease urban poverty
(RNS)-A group of Republican House members introduced far-reaching legislation this week that they said would make the work of religious groups seeking to end poverty in urban areas easier.
The plan would also provide new tax breaks for Americans who make contributions to”faith-based”charities engaged in such efforts, The Los Angeles Time reported.”If you don’t start with a faith-based approach, you aren’t starting,”said House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. The proposed legislation was drafted by Reps. James Talent, R-Mo., and J.C. Watts, R-Okla.
Under the plan, 100″renewal communities”in high-poverty areas would be identified. Each would be required to run federally funded school choice programs in which families at or below 185 percent of the poverty line would be offered vouchers to pay for sending their children to private schools.
The measure also would eliminate several taxes on businesses operating in the areas and end other restrictions the lawmakers contend keep religious organizations on the sidelines.
Individuals donating to charities that primarily assist poor people would receive a federal tax credit of up to $200 a person.
Elliot Mincberg, legal director of People For the American Way, a liberal constitutional liberties advocacy group, said that if the proposed measure should pass it would be immediately challenged in the courts.
Particularly vulnerable, according to Mincberg, is the plan’s voucher proposal. The Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment bars the use of public money to support religious education.
Anglican bishop wants Roman Catholics in World Council of Churches
(RNS)-Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali of the British diocese of Rochester, suggested Tuesday (Feb. 27) that the ecumenical community should consider scrapping the World Council of Churches and replacing it with a new international church body to which the Roman Catholic Church could belong.
Nazir-Ali, in a speech to the opening session of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland, said the Geneva, Switzerland-based WCC could take a cue from the British council. The British council changed its structure in 1990 in such a way that the Roman Catholic Church in Britain has agreed to become an associate member.”Surely a similar move needs to be made at the world level,”the bishop said.”Instead of reorganizing the WCC, we may need to start again from scratch, asking the Roman Catholic Church, in all humility, what structures would enable it to participate fully in the ecumenical movement at this (global) level,”Nazir-Ali said.”Its (Roman Catholic) absence at this level seriously hinders the work and witness of the church as a whole,”he said.
The Catholic Church has chosen not to participate in the WCC because of doctrinal differences.
The World Council of Churches has 324 Protestant and Orthodox members with a combined membership of 350 million.
The Rev. Konrad Raiser, the WCC’s secretary general, has also called on the council to look for ways to increase the Roman Catholic Church’s participation. In a speech last September to the organization’s Central Committee, Raiser proposed a”new association of ecumenical organizations”that would include the Roman Catholic Church and in which the WCC would just be one of many members.
Quote of the Day: Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston
Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, in a Feb. 27 letter to President Clinton objecting to Clinton’s asking Congress to modify legislation that would ban what abortion opponents call”partial-birth abortions”:”There is no reason, constitutional or otherwise, to allow children, in the very process of birth, to be killed, and killed in a manner unworthy of a civilized people.”
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