[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 13160-13163]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  20TH ANNIVERSARY OF PRIESTS FOR LIFE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Mrs. Bachmann) is 
recognized for 35 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mrs. BACHMANN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Minnesota?
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. BACHMANN. Today, Mr. Speaker, we mark the 20th anniversary of 
Priests for Life, and I'm pleased to yield 1 minute to my colleague, 
Jean Schmidt, of Ohio.
  Mrs. SCHMIDT. Thank you for giving me 1 minute.
  I do want to celebrate the 20th anniversary, and I want to celebrate 
three pro-life advocates in my own hometown. The first is Archbishop 
Dennis Schnurr, who has been unequivocally in the forefront of this 
movement. I have stood with Archbishop Schnurr in front of Planned 
Parenthood of Greater Cincinnati praying the rosary. I have walked with 
him in the Cross the Bridge for Life. I've watched him get on a bus 
with schoolchildren and come up here to Washington for the March for 
Life. Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Binzer is another pro-life advocate who 
has walked the walk and talked the talk. And most importantly, my own 
parish priest, Father Michael Cordier, who again has come up here to 
Washington with a group of students from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and 
St. Andrew to March for Life, but most importantly in his own personal 
life has witnessed his brother and his sister-in-law with a very 
challenged girl, Sophia Cordier, who not only exemplified what the 
meaning of life is, but as she passed into her eternal reward earlier 
this year, has become an emblematic portion of the right-to-life 
movement in greater Cincinnati.
  Mrs. BACHMANN. Mr. Speaker, I now yield 3 minutes to Mr. Walberg of 
Michigan.
  Mr. WALBERG. I thank the gentlelady. I thank you for commanding this 
time to call attention to people, heroes of life like Father Frank 
Pavone.
  Congressman Ron Paul, one of our colleagues, shared a poem with me on 
the floor one day. It caught my attention. It's called ``The Anvil'':

       Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith door, and heard the 
     anvil ring the vesper chime;
       Looking in, I saw upon the floor old hammers, worn with 
     beating years of time.
       `How many anvils have you had,' said I, `To wear and batter 
     all these hammers so?'
       `Just one,' said he, and then with twinkling eye, `The 
     anvil wears the hammers out, you know.'
       And so, thought I, the anvil called the master's Word, for 
     ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
       Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard, The anvil 
     is unharmed, and the hammers gone.

  Father Pavone and others who command the interest in life understand 
the power of truth, the truth that comes with the Creator, a Creator 
who has designed life itself for good and for the best interests of 
all.
  In our great document, the Declaration of Independence, it said:

       We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are 
     created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain 
     unalienable, God given rights, among them, the right to life, 
     liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

                              {time}  2130

  And so, Mr. Speaker, I would just refer back to the truth. Tonight, 
as we think about life and honor and organizations like Priests for 
Life and others who understand the truth that are contained in words 
like this, ``Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, The fruit of the 
womb is a reward''; of the prophet Jeremiah, of whom it was said, 
``Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I 
set you apart,'' that's life before even the womb was open.
  And then that beautiful psalm, Psalm 139, says:

       For You formed my inward parts. You wove me in my mother's 
     womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and 
     wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows 
     it very well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was 
     made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the 
     Earth. Your eyes have seen my unformed substance. And in Your 
     book were all written the days that were ordained for me, 
     when as yet there was not one of them.

  Father Frank, we thank you for your work and the Priests for Life. We 
thank all of those who stand for life.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank this body for the opportunity to speak for the 
principle that God created life for a purpose, and we must adore it and 
continue it on.
  Mrs. BACHMANN. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to Representative Chris Smith 
of New Jersey, the leading voice for the pro-life cause and for the 
unborn across the United States.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank my good friend for yielding and 
thank her for calling this very important Special Order.
  For two decades, I, along with countless others, have been moved, 
inspired, and motivated to defend the weakest and most vulnerable among 
us by the remarkable life and pro-life witness of Father Frank Pavone. 
Ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood by Cardinal John O'Connor in 
1988, Father Pavone celebrates 20 years since the founding of Priests 
for Life, the organization he so effectively leads.
  A prolific writer and gifted speaker, Father Pavone takes the gospel 
message of love, forgiveness, truth, and reconciliation both to 
friendly audiences who draw encouragement from his messages and to 
those--especially post-abortive women--who suffer and are in deep pain.
  I have heard Father Pavone challenge priests to more robustly defend 
the sanctity of life, especially in their homilies. In promoting the 
gospel of life, he insists no venue should be forsaken or ignored. 
Whether it be from the pulpit or in the public square, Father Pavone 
couldn't be more clear: Speak out with candor, clarity and compassion--
silence is not an option. Silence, I've heard him say, does a woman 
contemplating abortion no favor whatsoever. She needs pro-life options, 
real alternatives presented in a meaningful way. She needs 
understanding and genuine support. And others who might help her need 
to know that their willingness to assist might be the difference 
between life and death.
  In like matter, Father Pavone and Executive Director Janet Morana are 
unceasing in their efforts to tangibly aid post-abortive women who 
often suffer not only physical damage from abortion but lifelong 
negative emotional, psychological, and spiritual consequences. The 
Silent No More Awareness Campaign provides a safe place for women who 
have had abortions to grieve and find peace.
  Amazingly, Father Pavone also steadfastly reaches out to the actual 
purveyors of death in the abortion industry. This good priest sees not 
just the abortionist and their enablers committing violence against 
women and babies, but what might be if we genuinely care about their 
souls. Father Pavone reminds us that we are to pray for them, care for 
them, all while tenaciously opposing the deeds that they do.
  Abby Johnson, a woman who ran a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic 
for 8 years in Texas, said of Father Pavone:

       Father Frank Pavone has been a staple in my house for many 
     years, even during my Planned Parenthood years. Every week, I 
     would record and watch Defending Life on EWTN. I enjoyed 
     watching him, even if I disagreed. I loved how outspoken he 
     was and how he didn't seem to live in the gray. You know, 
     everything seemed black-and-white for him. Right and wrong 
     was clear.
       I remember watching him during the Terri Schiavo tragedy. I 
     was drawn to his gentle spirit. I had seen two sides to him--
     or was it? One side was so unabashedly, unapologetically, and 
     passionately against abortion. The other was a man who had an 
     incredibly compassionate heart and a kind spirit. This was 
     the man who was helping a family grieve the loss of their 
     daughter. But now I see they are the same. Father Frank is 
     for life, all life. His compassion for life fuels his 
     passion.

  Mr. Speaker, Priests for Life turns 20, doing best what it has done 
so faithfully, defending the least of these as if it were the Lord, 
Himself.

[[Page 13161]]


  Mrs. BACHMANN. I thank you, Mr. Smith, for your important pro-life 
voice, and thank you for the years of steadfastness on this issue. And 
we do thank Father Pavone and also Priests for Life.
  Now I would like to yield to a wonderful Member from Nebraska, Mr. 
Jeff Fortenberry, an important pro-life voice here in the United States 
Congress.
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. I thank the gentlelady from Minnesota for yielding, 
and thank you for your stalwart and courageous stand for life tonight.
  Women deserve better than abortion, and of course celebrating an 
extraordinary organization such as Priests for Life who have tried to 
heal the wounded and protect those who are most vulnerable is, of 
course, an extraordinary cause.
  Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues and I gather on the floor, I am going 
to turn the subject to another matter because we are marking what could 
possibly be considered one of the most significant turning points in 
the history of our Nation. But it is not a cause for celebration.
  In America, where we have a legacy of principle that undergirds our 
Nation and makes it possible to create prosperity--not just material 
means, but a flourishing of the potential of each person--where does 
that principle come from? Well, we've all heard the line from the 
earliest of our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, 
which goes like this:

       We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are 
     created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with 
     certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, 
     liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

  This is the operative philosophical paradigm of our culture, so much 
so we don't even think about it--that our rights are not conferred by a 
king or a government. They are inherent, based upon the dignity of each 
person.
  And as we worked this out in the early stages of our development of 
our country, we wrote a Constitution which basically did one thing: It 
defined power, and it defined power as coming from the consent of the 
government, consistent with our operative philosophical paradigm of the 
inherent dignity and rights and responsibilities of each individual 
person.
  Beyond that, the consent of the governed turns that power over to 
representatives who then make prudential judgments about what is in the 
common good. We make the law and are held accountable by the people in 
elections.
  We then spread that power out. We developed three branches of 
government: the Congress makes the law; the President enforces the law; 
and the judiciary interprets the law in order that we have even more 
balance of power to ensure that it is not abused.
  But then we took it a step further. There were still concerns that we 
had defined where power is coming from--from the natural inherent 
dignity of the person--but we also wanted to define what government 
must not do, and so we wrote the Bill of Rights, the first 10 
amendments to the Constitution. And the First Amendment starts with 
these words:

       Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
     religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or 
     abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the 
     right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition 
     the Government for a redress of grievances.

  Now, Mr. Speaker, the threats to religious liberty in our country are 
often more subtle than in other parts of the world. But as a 
legislator, what has grieved me deeply is that, for the first time in 
the history of health care in the United States, Americans are being 
forced to choose to either obey the government or violate their 
personal convictions. Buried in the President's 2010 health care law 
was a provision empowering the Secretary of Health and Human Services, 
Kathleen Sebelius, to issue rules on preventative services.

                              {time}  2140

  Who could have predicted that she would use her authority, sanctioned 
by President Obama, to force everyone to purchase drugs and 
procedures--including abortion-inducing drugs--that violate the 
fundamental ethical sensibilities of many Americans.
  No American should be forced to choose between their conscience and 
their livelihood. No American should be forced to stand for their 
deeply held, reasoned beliefs, or stand convicted by government 
coercion. No American should be forced to choose between their faith 
and their job. This is wrong. It is a false choice. It is unjust. It is 
unnecessary. It is un-American, and it is an affront to the very 
purpose of our government derived from the consent of the governed.
  America owes its unique character and strength to empowering, 
protecting, and upholding the inalienable rights of her citizens. 
Health care should be about the common good, caring for the sick, and 
healing the wounded. Health care policy should not be a vehicle to 
drive divisive ideology, forcing Americans to violate deeply held 
beliefs. The Health and Human Services mandate violates the fundamental 
principle of religious liberty and the rights of conscience so dear to 
this country. America owes its unique character and strength to 
empowering, protecting, and upholding those rights of her citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, Karen McGiveny-Llechtl, one of my constituents, sent me 
this email:

       As a woman's health practitioner and a Catholic, I need the 
     ability to stay within my faith boundaries. I would be unable 
     to work if I was required to provide the services this 
     mandate has imposed.

  Indeed, it is sad that the Health and Human Services ruling seems 
most perniciously targeted at faith-based providers who are the 
backstop of compassionate care for our most vulnerable. Throughout our 
history, the U.S. health care service has in large measure owed its 
success to the doctors, nurses, and health care providers staffing 
faith-based institutions. These institutions, including hospitals and 
university clinics and nonprofit health institutions, serve the common 
good of all Americans. The government should celebrate the contribution 
of these faith-based entities, which fulfill the mission of helping the 
sick and serving the poor. Without them, we will see reduced access to 
high-quality care, especially for vulnerable persons who have 
traditionally relied on these benevolent organizations of civil 
society. Several health care practitioners have told me personally that 
they would choose to leave their professions rather than compromise 
their beliefs. But undoubtedly, some will not obey the government. And 
our government has effectively condemned them.
  Another man who was condemned for his beliefs had this to say:

       I submit that an individual that breaks a law that 
     conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the 
     penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the 
     community over its injustice, is, in reality, expressing the 
     very highest respect for the law.

  So wrote Dr. Martin Luther King from the Birmingham jail.
  The purpose of our government is to create just structures for 
societal order, empowering liberty, beginning with the affirmation of 
the natural rights of the person, including the most basic right of 
conscience. In my office, there is a copy of a draft of the Bill of 
Rights. The rights of conscience were initially included in that draft. 
But by the final version, that right was formalized by the concept of 
religious freedom, perhaps given that the rights of conscience were 
such an ordinarily understood concept that its fullness did not need 
provision. James Madison, the architect of the Constitution, wrote that 
``conscience is the most sacred of all property,'' linking conscience 
rights to the foundation of religious liberty.
  In 1809, Thomas Jefferson stated that:

       No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man 
     than that which protects the rights of conscience against the 
     enterprises of civil authority.

  The Health and Human Services mandate violates the fundamental 
principle of religious liberty and rights of conscience so dear to our 
country. No American should be forced to choose between violating their 
conscience in order to serve the public. From the faith-based hospital 
to the business person providing health care

[[Page 13162]]

coverage in their insurance plan to their employees, to the school 
established for children with special needs, no American should be 
forced to choose between their faith and their job.
  This is why so many people of goodwill, regardless of their religious 
traditions or their political affiliation, consider the Health and 
Human Services mandate to be a gross affront to the very essence of 
what it means to be an American. And all of us must choose our 
response. This is not simply a religious issue.It's not a Catholic 
issue. It's not an Evangelical issue. It's an American issue. We all 
have a responsibility to decide, informed by our faith, what our 
country means to us, and what it demands of us in this moment.
  Last Friday, there was a Federal judge who ruled in a court case in 
this regard, and I think Federal Judge John Kane in Hercules v. 
Sebelius got it right. He had this to say:

       The government's interests are countered, and indeed 
     outweighed, by the public interest in the free exercise of 
     religion.

  I thank the gentlelady from Minnesota for her leadership on this 
important issue, and so many others.
  Mrs. BACHMANN. I thank you, Mr. Fortenberry, a father of five. And 
I'm a mother of five, and so I thank you.
  Mr. Speaker, I will give just a few remarks on Priests for Life and 
on their 20th anniversary. Tonight is a very important night because, 
as we know, it has been 40 years since the infamous Roe v. Wade 
decision removed legal protection for those who are unborn, the 
youngest members of our society, those who still remain in the womb of 
their mother.
  And since that time, numerous groups have risen up to restore that 
protection to the unborn and to educate the public about the issue that 
we all know as abortion, and to provide compassionate service, both to 
those who need alternatives to abortion and those who need healing 
after abortion.
  I stand here today with my colleagues in the United States Congress 
to honor one extremely important institution known as Priests for Life 
as they celebrate 20 years of advocacy and service to the unborn. As 
many people across America know, Priests for Life is led by Father 
Frank Pavone. He is one of the strongest voices for the unborn 
throughout the world, as well as for children in America, and he stands 
strong because as we know, contrary to what its name might suggest, 
Priests for Life isn't just for priests, and it's not just for 
Catholics.
  The work of Priests for Life has enabled Americans of every walk of 
life, every ethnicity, every faith background, every political 
affiliation, to awaken their consciences about the life issue, to speak 
up for the unborn. And here's just a few of the outreach efforts, Mr. 
Speaker, that Priests for Life have been involved in.
  Every year, Priests for Life holds nearly 1,000 retreats across 
America for men and women who have lost a child to abortion. Priests 
for Life also runs the very important Silent No More awareness campaign 
to mobilize men and women who have lost a child to abortion but who 
have gone on to experience healing through God and who now want to 
share their testimony.
  One of the full-time members of Priests for Life is a very important 
voice in the United States, Dr. Alveda King. I was just with her this 
last weekend. Americans know her as the niece of Dr. Martin Luther 
King, Jr. Alveda heads up the effort to reach the black community with 
the truth of abortion and how it disproportionately impacts unborn 
black children in the United States.
  Priests for Life also sponsors a nonpartisan voter registration 
drive, focused on saving innocent human life and helping to heal the 
hurt of men and women as they are post-abortive. Through churches, they 
distribute voter guides. They train clergy on what they can do within 
the limits of the law to foster political responsibility.
  Now, it is very difficult to find any national initiative to the pro-
life movement that either Father Frank Pavone or Priests for Life are 
somehow not deeply involved in. For example, in February of this year, 
2012, Priests for Life launched a lawsuit against the Health and Human 
Services mandate, which we have heard much about this evening, that 
requires job creators to offer health insurance coverage for morally 
objectionable practices.

                              {time}  2150

  This mandate is an enormous affront to our First Amendment religious 
liberty rights in the United States and it needs to be stopped, because 
never before has this government, Mr. Speaker, required a job creator 
to provide insurance that includes contraception, abortion-causing 
pills and sterilization. No organization, no American, Mr. Speaker, 
should have to violate their religious beliefs because of this 
President's health care dictates. I am a mom to 28 kids, five natural 
born children, 23 foster children. I believe with every fiber in my 
being that every child matters and that we should have a right to life 
for every American, because every life is precious, every life is 
sacred, and every life is made in the image and likeness of a holy God. 
Every life matters.
  I'm extremely proud to be a part of the pro-life movement that is 
truly a voice for the voiceless and to have been affiliated with 
Priests for Life and Father Frank Pavone. As we take note of the 20th 
anniversary of one of the leading pro-life organizations in our Nation, 
I wish to thank this evening Priests for Life for everything they 
continue to do to protect and defend the sanctity of every human life.
  I would now like to yield to one of the strongest pro-life voices in 
the State of Texas, well-known and beloved to Americans all across this 
Nation, Representative Louie Gohmert.
  Mr. GOHMERT. I thank my friend from Minnesota, my very, very dear 
friend.
  This is an important day, Priests for Life marking 20 years. As a 
Christian, as a Southern Baptist, it is an honor to pay tribute to the 
Catholic priests who have stood strong, stood for life, that precious 
one of the trilogy that was set out in the Declaration of Independence. 
But first life. Only if you have life can you then go to liberty and 
have a chance at a pursuit of happiness.
  For those of us who believe the scripture written in the Old 
Testament, as did our founders, most all of them--in fact a third of 
the signers of the Declaration of Independence, over a third, were 
ordained Christian ministers--but certainly George Washington and even 
Ben Franklin, even though some history teachers mislead their students 
these days. They all believed in those scriptures.
  When you look at the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel, it's a 
little scary, because, as I've read, one of the things that God was 
angry over was that people had fallen into such incredible idol worship 
that they were willing to sacrifice their own children. That is so 
abominable. How could anybody love such idols and idol worship such 
that they would sacrifice their own child and allow the taking of their 
own child's life?
  And then I thought about abortion in this country, and we have no 
room to talk. For 20 years, Priests for Life have known that, and they 
have stood firm that the most essential right of our Creator is life, 
and you can't get to liberty until you start with life.
  And then the irony of all ironies, today, the first day that the 
Catholic church and really all of us who are Christians, all of us who 
believe in freedom of religion, all of us that in fact actually believe 
the Constitution means what it says have been slapped down by this 
administration. Regardless of what the Supreme Court says, the First 
Amendment makes clear, as my friend from Nebraska (Mr. Fortenberry) 
says:

       Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
     religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

  Or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
  And we have friends, Christian friends, who believe with all their 
heart it is a right to practice their religion, and they have these 
religious beliefs, and this administration has demeaned them to the 
point that it would release a quote as was pointed out by Amy Payne 
with the Heritage

[[Page 13163]]

Foundation today, when quoting the Health and Human Services 
Department:

       The Obama administration will continue to work with all 
     employers to give them the flexibility and resources they 
     need to implement the health care law in a way that protects 
     women's health while making commonsense accommodations for 
     values like religious liberty.

  Values nothing. It's a constitutional right that this administration 
is trodding on and trampling and stomping on. And if it will take this 
right, what's next? Can Jews not worship on the Sabbath because it's 
inconvenient? But maybe this administration will help try to 
accommodate that value.
  Or how about communion? Maybe this administration will find at some 
point it's really not healthy, and so they'll try to accommodate the 
religious conviction, the freedom of religion, as a value. They'll try 
to work with people who believe this to the core of their hearts.
  You go back to the founding. We didn't even have a Constitution. Ben 
Franklin sat for 5 weeks, virtually, listening to all the rancor back 
and forth. He finally rises, 80 years old, gout, trouble getting up, 
overweight, a couple of years or so from meeting his Judge, and he 
points out, We've been going for nearly 5 weeks. We've got more noes 
than ayes on virtually everything, and he asks:

       How has it happened, sir, that we've not once thought of 
     humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our 
     understanding? In the beginning contest with Great Britain 
     when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this 
     room. Our prayers, sir, were heard and they were graciously 
     answered.

  Now that's not a deist, and it's someone who does not believe in the 
accommodation of a religious value. He believed in religious freedom. 
Not only that, he believed in the power of prayer because in that same 
speech that we know is his speech, because he wrote it out in his own 
hand, he says:

       I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live the 
     more convincing proofs I see of this truth: God governs in 
     the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the 
     ground without His notice, is it possible that an empire 
     could rise without His aid?

  Ben Franklin said:

       We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writing--

  Not that we're accommodating, but that we believe in--

       We've been assured in the sacred writing that unless the 
     Lord build it, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly 
     believe this. I also believe without His, God's, concurring 
     aid, we will succeed in our political building no better than 
     the builders of Babel.

  Now, here we are over 200 years later trying to accommodate what Ben 
Franklin said that stirred the hearts of those and even stirred 
Randolph to say, You know what: Let's take a break. Let's go listen to 
a preacher preach the word all together as a constitutional convention 
and then come back. And they did and they came back with a new spirit 
and they gave us a Constitution that this administration is now 
trodding and trampling upon.
  God, the God of which Ben Franklin spoke, without whom we will 
succeed in our political building no better than the builders of Babel, 
is now being told by this administration that they'll accommodate as 
best they can, but make no mistake, they're trampling on the rights 
that Priests for Life have been preaching about for 20 years.
  I thank my friend for yielding.
  Mrs. BACHMANN. I thank our friend from Texas.
  I just want to say, we've had so many Members of Congress that wanted 
to be down here on the floor this evening and there was only so much 
time.
  I would like to thank also Congresswoman Black of Tennessee, 
Congressman Huelskamp of Kansas, Congressman Lankford of Oklahoma, 
Congresswoman Blackburn of Tennessee. Also, I want to thank Congressman 
Trent Franks of Arizona. We had many in addition to the Members that we 
have heard from this evening: Congressman Fortenberry of Nebraska, 
Congressman Walberg of Michigan, and Congresswoman Schmidt of Ohio, in 
addition to Congressman Smith of New Jersey. I want to thank them, 
Congressman Gohmert of Texas, and so many other pro-life Members of 
Congress. This is an important night. We thank Priests for Life for 20 
years of standing firm for the cause of the unborn. We will get there 
yet. Thank you, Father Frank.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, today the Obama Administration is 
following through on their HHS mandate that violates religious freedom 
as today begins the date where the rule goes into effect. 24 separate 
lawsuits across the country have been filed representing 76 plaintiffs.
  On Friday, a Carter-appointed judge in Denver provided a preliminary 
injunction against the HHS mandate to the Newland family, the Catholic 
owners of a HVAC company in Colorado. This case, led by Alliance 
Defending Freedom, is a welcomed initial victory for religious freedom. 
We will need the courts or the Congress to reverse this tragic 
disregard for American's First Amendment right to freedom of religion 
without government interference.
  Protecting the First Amendment has to be our First priority. The 
first words of the First Amendment read: ``Congress shall make no law 
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free 
exercise thereof. . . .''
  What happened to the promise that ``if you like the health care you 
have you can keep it?''
  The radical mandate makes it so religious-based institutions are 
forced to defy a Higher Order at the will of a Government Order. 
Religious liberty is a sacred and fundamental right. It's central to 
who we are as a country, a country founded by people who fled Europe 
for their religious beliefs.
  If President Obama does not reverse his administration's attack on 
religious freedom, Congress, led by the People's House, will do it for 
him.
  People who go to church on Sunday and who put money in an offering 
plate shouldn't have to worry that their donations will go to pay for 
things that they don't believe in their hearts to be good.
  The House is going to address this matter fairly and deliberately, 
through the appropriate legislative channels in the House Energy & 
Commerce Committee.
  The rule announced by the Obama Administration's Department of Health 
& Human Services would require faith-based employers--including 
Catholic charities, schools, universities, and hospitals--to provide 
services they consider immoral. Those services include sterilization, 
abortion-inducing drugs and devices, and contraception (FDA approved 
items).
  The effect is government crowding out religious-based institutions. 
Government is using raw political force to impose a government view on 
society where religious institutions are not welcome to serve or 
practice their faith freely. It is government forcing private and 
religious institutions off the public square. They're forcing resources 
off the table that serve the public good. Since when was that a good 
idea?

                          ____________________