NATION.
Virginia Assembly OKs abortion waiting periodThe Virginia General Assembly has approved a 24-hour mandatory waiting period for women seeking abortions. The state Senate approved the measure Feb. 6 in a 24 to 16 vote, following in the footsteps of their colleagues in the House of Delegates, the Washington Post reported.
Under the bill, physicians must provide counseling, including medical explanations of the procedure and its alternatives, to women at least 24 hours before the procedure is performed. Other information, such as pictures of fetal development and information about adoption, must also be offered.
Doctors must receive a patient's written consent, except in cases of medical emergencies, before performing an abortion. Failure to abide by the bill could result in a $2,500 fine.
Opponents of the measure say it is a barrier to abortion access. "Forcing a woman to wait after she's already made the decision is demeaning," said Dayle Steinberg, a Planned Parenthood representative in Pennsylvania, where a similar law took effect in 1994. "It assumes that women haven't already given thought to their decision."
The bill is "a slam" on physicians, said Dr. Herbert T. Jones of Charlottesville, Va., since informed consent is already needed before an abortion can be performed.
Requiring physicians to provide counseling, a task usually reserved for counselors, is especially problematic, Jones added, since some abortion opponents charge that a doctor's advice could be compromised by possible financial gain from the procedure.
The bill now goes to Gov. James S. Gilmore. If signed, it will take effect Oct. 1.
Texas bishops want better health care
Bishops of the 15 Catholic dioceses in Texas have issued a statement decrying a lack of proper health care for children in their state as a "tragic situation" that needs immediate attention. More than 1.4 million Texas children are not covered by health insurance, they pointed out in a Jan. 29 statement released by the Texas Catholic Conference in Austin.
According to the statement, more than 1 million uninsured children are eligible for enrollment in either the federal Medicaid program or the state's Children's Health Insurance Program. The state program is for children who are not eligible for Medicaid and are living in families with a current annual income below twice the federal poverty rate, which is $34,100 for a family of four.
But because of the complexity of the application process for Medicaid and the lack of knowledge about the Children's Health Insurance Program, these children continue to live without health insurance, the bishops said.
Urging that immediate steps be taken to "ensure health care for all Texas children," the bishops called on state agencies and the legislature to simplify the application and enrollment process for Medicaid and to improve Medicaid's quality of service.
They urged faith communities to assist in providing information about the health care programs available for families and to help them understand the differences between the Children's Health Insurance Program and Medicaid and the application process for both programs.
The bishops also said that while they were focusing on the health care of children, they realize that "millions of adults in our country are deprived of ready access to health care" and recognized a need for "comprehensive reform of the health care delivery in the United States."
Episcopalians want compliance on women's ordination
The Episcopal church has appointed a nine-member task force to work with three dioceses that still refuse to ordain women as pastors, 25 years after the church first welcomed women in the pulpit.
At the church's General Convention meeting last year in Denver, delegates voted to form the panel to listen to the reasons why the dioceses of Quincy, Ill., Fort Worth, Texas, and San Joaquin, Calif., do not ordain women -- and eventually order them to comply.
The three dioceses say their theology requires them to restrict the priesthood to men, and the bishops in each diocese said they resented being forced by the larger church to comply.
In a statement issued by the task force--which includes three bishops and five women -- members acknowledged the "sensitivity" attached to women's ordination and promised to work with "flexibility' with each diocese.
"The council's hope is that this ongoing process enabling the full inclusion of women in the life of the church can be accomplished with grace, wisdom and sensitivity through the work of the Holy Spirit," the statement said.
Conference assesses Muslim political involvement
In the aftermath of New York Republican Rep. Rick Lazio's labeling as "blood money" the funds a Muslim group donated to Hillary Rodham Clinton's senatorial campaign, Muslim voters in the United States have shown they won't stand for "that kind of political opportunism," speakers told a roundtable discussion on Muslim politics Feb. 12. The event was sponsored by the Interfaith Alliance and Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights.
Last October, Lazio blasted his Democratic opponent for accepting $50,000 raised last summer at a Boston fundraiser sponsored by the American Muslim Alliance. News accounts quoted the group's leader as saying he supports armed force against Israel in certain situations.
In the following days, some Republicans made phone calls to New York voters in which they suggested Clinton and the Muslim alliance were linked to terrorist activity such as the bomb attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.
Clinton returned the money and denied supporting terrorism. Lazio's charges were a setback for Muslim voters, said Maya Berry, director of government relations for the Arab American Institute. The charges also showed the ways in which ethnic minorities are frequently made scapegoats in the United States, said Laura Murphy, director of the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union.
`Critical lack' of birth control at Catholic colleges
Female students at Catholic colleges and universities suffer from a "critical lack" of reproductive health services on campus, according to a new study by Catholics for a Free Choice, an independent group that supports legal abortion.
The study, published in the journal of Catholics for a Free Choice, surveyed 166 of the nation's 238 Catholic universities to assess what services, if any, are available for college students, such as birth control, pregnancy counseling and abortion. Of those 166 schools, 133 said they have a campus health center.
The survey found that only 40 percent of the colleges offer tests for HIV and AIDS, and 44 percent offer screening for sexually transmitted diseases. Just 17 percent of schools said they provide contraception, and only 8 percent provide condoms. Only 2 percent provide emergency contraception. Just over half -- 59 percent --- of colleges provide counseling for students with unplanned pregnancies, although many are restricted in providing guidance on abortion.
Catholics for a Free Choice describes itself as an independent nonprofit Catholic organization "working in the Catholic social justice tradition." It recently waged an unsuccessful campaign to get the Holy See's permanent observer status at the United Nations revoked.
Francis J. Butler, president since 1981 of Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities, wrote about the group's reliance on secular foundations in the January-February issue of Philanthropy, bimonthly magazine of the Philanthropy Roundtable. He said a review of recent grants recorded in the -Foundation Center's grant index shows Catholics for a Free Choice to be "an organization without a single major supporter whose program focus is Catholic philanthropy."
Letter seeks protected status for Salvadorans in U.S.
As El Salvador struggles to recover from a devastating Jan. 13 earthquake and a second major quake Feb. 13, the chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops' Committee on Migration has formally asked the Justice Department to grant temporary legal status to Salvadorans who may be in the United States illegally.
The January quake, which had a magnitude of 7.6, killed more than 840 people. Hundreds were still missing a month later when a second strong earthquake, measured at 6.6 magnitude, caused additional deaths and collapsed hundreds of buildings that had survived the first disaster.
In a Feb. 9 letter to Attorney General John Ashcroff, committee chairman Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Camden, N.J., asked for Temporary Protected Status so that Salvadorans would not be deported to a country struggling to recover from devastation.
Congress authorizes the attorney general to approve Temporary Protected Status if citizens of certain countries would face natural disaster or "extraordinary temporary conditions" if they were returned home. Nicaraguans and Hondurans are currently eligible for Temporary Protected Status triggered by Hurricane Mitch in October 1998.
Chittister calls for socially just communities
More than 800 people from two dioceses heard a call from Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister for a new kind of spirituality based on doing God's work in the world to bring about socially lust communities. "What God saves, God saves only through us," she told diocesan and parish workers and volunteers from throughout the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese, and the Kansas City, Kan., archdiocese Feb. 7.
The task for today is to link personal spirituality with the public dimensions of life to change the underlying systems that institutionalize injustice, she said.
Our national budget devotes "only 20 cents of every dollar to human development and 55 cents of every dollar to military expenditures, and we call it peace time," she said.
She said there is an ongoing struggle between piety and Christianity, social service and godly ministry, religion for real and religion for show. She cited the need for child-care and health care, and for promoting the rehabilitation of prisoners instead of contributing to the "growth industry" of prisons.
Chittister also called for support for gun control and efforts on behalf of people who work full time for part-time wages, and urged fighting world militarism, nuclear weapons, what she termed the industrial slavery of the Third World, and "welfare for the rich called tax breaks."
The job of Christian leaders is to minister in such a way as to change people's lives by changing the underlying causes of their wounds, she said, through the two-step process of finding God through prayer and doing God's work in the world.
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| Author: | Donovan, Gill |
|---|---|
| Publication: | National Catholic Reporter |
| Geographic Code: | 1U5VA |
| Date: | Feb 23, 2001 |
| Words: | 1670 |
| Previous Article: | University president responds to critics. |
| Next Article: | ADDENDA. |
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