Rolling back Bush Directive on Abortion -- NOT
28/02/09 00:43 Filed in: Obama | Catholic
Social Teaching
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/27/conscience.rollback/
I read this story with some sort of amusement. There have been laws in place for decades that protect health workers from performing duties that violate their conscience. I couldn’t believe something so fundamental would be left up to the whims of the current president, whoever that might be.
But the headlines, as always, deceive in order to get the reader interested. Why were there no similar headlines when Bush created the rule that Obama is overturning?
The problem here is that, on his last day in office, Bush issued an order that changed some wording on how health care workers are protected from harassment or job loss if they refuse to perform a procedure they disagree with. But there was no need to issue such an edict, since medical professionals have had such protections for decades.
What is more interesting is this: if Bush were so concerned with protecting people in their jobs because of moral objections, then why did he not issue the order when he FIRST took office rather than as he LEFT office? The answer is simple, of course. He intended to trap Obama. Now hear me out. If Bush really cared about these issues, he could have issued the order eight years ago. So we have to ask, why did he wait to do it in his last day of office knowing that Obama would overturn it?
One answer suffices: Bush, playing for his party, established the rule so that Obama would get bad press over the abortion issue. This is simply another trick by the GOP to make Obama lose the next election. It’s rather ingenious. On the other hand, we should recognize the insincerity with which the GOP uses the abortion issue purely to win votes. They don’t really care about the unborn or about protecting people’s privacy. If they did, Bush would have passed the rule early on. Rather, they use these issues to drive a wedge into people to split them over “moral” issues as if the failing economy, the lack of oversight, and the unjust war were not moral issues.
In this time of lent, we should commit ourselves as Christians to look at the whole picture, not to vote with our hearts only, and to consider the ways the major parties try to divide and conquer.
I read this story with some sort of amusement. There have been laws in place for decades that protect health workers from performing duties that violate their conscience. I couldn’t believe something so fundamental would be left up to the whims of the current president, whoever that might be.
But the headlines, as always, deceive in order to get the reader interested. Why were there no similar headlines when Bush created the rule that Obama is overturning?
The problem here is that, on his last day in office, Bush issued an order that changed some wording on how health care workers are protected from harassment or job loss if they refuse to perform a procedure they disagree with. But there was no need to issue such an edict, since medical professionals have had such protections for decades.
What is more interesting is this: if Bush were so concerned with protecting people in their jobs because of moral objections, then why did he not issue the order when he FIRST took office rather than as he LEFT office? The answer is simple, of course. He intended to trap Obama. Now hear me out. If Bush really cared about these issues, he could have issued the order eight years ago. So we have to ask, why did he wait to do it in his last day of office knowing that Obama would overturn it?
One answer suffices: Bush, playing for his party, established the rule so that Obama would get bad press over the abortion issue. This is simply another trick by the GOP to make Obama lose the next election. It’s rather ingenious. On the other hand, we should recognize the insincerity with which the GOP uses the abortion issue purely to win votes. They don’t really care about the unborn or about protecting people’s privacy. If they did, Bush would have passed the rule early on. Rather, they use these issues to drive a wedge into people to split them over “moral” issues as if the failing economy, the lack of oversight, and the unjust war were not moral issues.
In this time of lent, we should commit ourselves as Christians to look at the whole picture, not to vote with our hearts only, and to consider the ways the major parties try to divide and conquer.