This past Monday I submitted to Joseph Towalski, the editor of The Catholic Spirit, a brief "Op-Ed" on what can best be described as a conspiracy to secure, through the exploitation of the prevailing clamor for health care reform, the federal funding of abortion as a settled function of our government together with the abolition of all existing restrictions on abortion. For those of you who do not subscribe to our archdiocesan newspaper I am taking the liberty of reprinting the Op-Ed here, assuming (not recklessly, I hope) that in so doing I will not be "jumping the gun " on The Spirit.
   It's "All Systems Go!" for Operation Hijack-an effort to channel the resources of our federal government into providing subsidies for abortion (and, farther down the road, most likely for euthanasia, too). The strategy is to insert wording that is intentionally ambiguous into the draft legislation for health care reform, so that when the final resolution of differences between the House and Senate versions is achieved and the final vote is taken, the Executive branch of the government will be free to interpret the legislation in such a way as to allow the imposing of mandated subsidies from the federal treasury for the provision of abortion "services", with the co-opting of private health care insurers into the program and the coercing of health care providers, both individual and institutional, into complicity in the provision of abortion, even should such provision involve the violation of conscience.
    To catch a glimpse into the real intent of some of those who are charged with drafting legislation for health care reform one could do no better than to consider a recent session (held on July the ninth) of a Senate committee that is crucially important in the planned restructuring of our nation's health care system, the Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (known by its acronym as The HELP Committee).  Chaired by Maryland's Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski, the committee met to hear proposals from its members for changes in the draft legislation's wording. Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah,  asked a searching question "Madame Chairman, would you be willing to put some language in [into the bill] that says 'Not including abortion services'?"
   Senator Mikulski replied: "No, I would not be willing to do that at this time." At a subsequent session (on July the thirteenth) Senator Hatch offered a carefully worded amendment that would remove existing ambiguity and would explicitly prohibit federal funding of abortion except in the case of rape, incest, or imminent threat to the life of the mother. Senator Hatch's proposed amendment was defeated in committee by majority vote.
   That's the way things stand today, which is why the only way to stop this planned hijacking of health care reform in the interests of the Culture of Death is for pro-Life citizens across the board to let their Senators and Representatives know, by telephone, FAX, e-mail or traditional written letter (or even, whenever possible, by "button-holing" said representatives face to face) just how much they, as voters, vigorously oppose the allocation of federal tax dollars to the murder of the helpless unborn.
   All the more importunate today is Edmund Burke's much cited admonition: "All that is required for the triumph of evil is that the good do nothing." Now is the time for pro-Life citizens to make their voices heard!
   Many economists think that the estimates of the price- tag for measures now being considered for the reform of health care are way too low. The experience of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in its effort to provide universal coverage for its citizens is instructive.   May I quote from an editorial (July 28th) in the Wall Street Journal.  "After only three years, the universal healthcare experiment in Massachusetts is already breaking that state's budget, and its own version of MedPAC is now recommending radical changes, including a "global" health-care budget. This means that state bureaucrats will decide what is the 'right' amount to spend on medicine, and doctors and hospitals will be given some portion of the total and told to make it work for patients.  This is supposed to be a kind of Occam's Scalpel, forcing providers to cut unnecessary treatments. But under a global budget, payments are likely to be lower than economic costs, squeezing out some  beneficial treatments.

Active links from the above insert:
1.   http://www.StopTheAbortionMandate.com/email
2.   http://www.StopTheAbortionMandate.com/call
3.   http://www.StopTheAbortionMandate.com/share
4.   http://www.StopTheAbortionMandate.com/editor 

---