As you may know from earlier emails, FOCA, the "Freedom of Choice Act," has reared its ugly head. State Catholic Conference Directors, the USCCB General Counsel's Office and the Pro-Life Secretariat have become very concerned that FOCA would sweep away hundreds of pro-life laws and policies at the state and federal level.
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Three times the Secretariat has run full-page advertisements in Roll Call attacking the dangerous provisions of FOCA while urging legislators to pledge their opposition to FOCA (http://www.usccb.org/prolife/media/docs/foca/congress.pdf ).
On September 19, Cardinal Rigali wrote to all members of Congress urging them to reject FOCA and enclosed an analysis of its legal effect. On September 22, we sent out a press release about this message to Congress. On September 24, NCHLA released a Federal Legislative Action Alert on FOCA, followed two days later by a Spanish language FOCA alert.
We now provide you with some parish materials that we hope will be helpful. As parishes across the country begin to observe Respect Life Month, we encourage you to make use of the attached new resources to highlight the significant dangers of FOCA and to ask parishioners to urge Congress to oppose FOCA. The attached “bell tower” bulletin insert can be placed in parish bulletins or handed out. It can be printed locally in black and white or color, and adjusted for advertisement size in your Catholic paper. If you need help with sizing for a newspaper, please get in touch with Deirdre McQuade at dmcquade@usccb.org. Also attached is a FOCA fact sheet giving more detailed information to support the bullet points made in the bulletin insert/ad. Within a few days we will send you Spanish versions of these new materials.
We thank you for your patience as we have been pulling together these materials. We are very heartened by the positive responses to date. Very appropriately, people all across the country are extremely concerned about the radical provisions of FOCA. Now, during Respect Life Month, is a key time to express that concern to our legislators.
Thanks for your continued prayers and efforts in building a Culture of Life!
Sincerely in Christ,
Tom Grenchik
Executive Director (USCCB Pro-Life Secretariat)
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