Focusing on FOCA

As the media give us play-by-play coverage of Congress' Christmas -- oops, "happy holidays" --catalog full of ways to spend our money and Obama Cabinet nominees who think they are above the tax laws they created for the rest of us, little attention is being given to FOCA, the so-called Freedom of Choice Act that the president has promised to pass.

When FOCA was introduced in the Senate in 2004, it was a pretty simple bill that guaranteed abortion rights to women. The bill -- sponsored by Sens. Boxer, Corzine, Murray, Lautenberg, Clinton, Cantwell, Jeffords, Lieberman, Feinstein, Sarbanes, Mikulski and six others -- was introduced "to prohibit, consistent with Roe v. Wade, the interference by the government with a woman's right to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy, and for other purposes." (What in the world does that last part mean -- "other purposes"?)

Here's the meat of the bill as it was introduced four years ago:

(a) STATEMENT OF POLICY- It is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman.
(b) PROHIBITION OF INTERFERENCE- A government may not--
(1) deny or interfere with a woman's right to choose--
(A) to bear a child;
(B) to terminate a pregnancy prior to viability; or
(C) to terminate a pregnancy after viability where termination is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman; or
(2) discriminate against the exercise of the rights set forth in paragraph (1) in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information.
(c) CIVIL ACTION- An individual aggrieved by a violation of this section may obtain appropriate relief (including relief against a government) in a civil action.

The bill leaves it up to a woman's physician to determine whether the unborn child has reached viability -- that is, s/he is mature enough to survive outside the mother's womb. It also commits the government to spend our money on abortions, abortion clinics, materials promoting abortion, etc.

Perhaps more interesting is what the bill leaves unsaid. For instance, are 13-year-olds considered "women"? Can the government force private hospitals, counseling services, doctors and pharmacists to commit acts against their conscience?

Although this bill died in the Senate Judiciary Committee last time around, Obama made campaign promises to Planned Parenthood that one of the first things he would do is get FOCA passed. Judging by what he has done already, this is a promise he intends to keep. Although the country was drowning in debt, struggling through a deep-seated recession and facing increased violence in Afghanistan when Obama took the oath of office, the first things he did upon entering the Oval Office included lifting the ban on embryonic stem cell production -- even though science has demonstrated that cord and adult stem cells may be more adaptive -- and committed our tax dollars to promote abortion in other countries. With priorities like that, I'm sure we can count on him to quietly bring renewed energy to passing FOCA while the rest of us worry about the economy. -- Posted by Mari