News

WASHINGTON, September 25, 2002 (LSN.ca) – The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 4691) today.  Rejecting opposition by NARAL and other pro-abortion advocacy groups, the House passed the bill 229-189. The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) applauded the bill’s passage noting that “The bill is needed because officials and courts in some states are forcing health care providers to participate in abortions.”

Increasingly in recent years, pro-abortion groups have been actively engaged in a concerted campaign to coerce hospitals and other health care providers, both religiously affiliated and secular, to provide, facilitate, or pay for abortions.  Typical of these efforts is the “Hospital Provider Project” of the Maryland affiliate of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL).  As that organization explained, “The goal of the Hospital Provider Project is to increase access to abortion services by REQUIRING Maryland hospitals to provide abortion . . .” (capitals added for emphasis) In other examples cited in today’s debate, the Alaska state supreme court ruled that some community hospitals must perform late second-trimester abortions against their will.

While urgently required, the bill will likely be killed in the Democrat-controlled Senate.  NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson said, “Unfortunately, the Senate Democratic leadership will probably kill this bill this year, just as they are killing the bill to ban partial-birth abortions.”