Obama Reaches Out Before Vatican Trip from the Washington Post reports that in a pre-emptive strike before his meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican that could be contentious based on Obama's stances on abortion and embryonic stem cell research, Obama met with eight religious leaders to reassure them that Catholic health care workers would not be forced to perform procedures that weren't in keeping with the Catholic Church's teachings.
Obama said he hopes his meeting with the pope will lead to cooperation in several areas -- including Mideast peace, poverty, climate change and immigration -- in which he said Benedict has shown "extraordinary leadership."
But even though the two have areas of "deep agreement . . . there are going to be some areas where we've got some disagreements," the president added in the 45-minute session in the Roosevelt Room. Those areas include abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research, which Obama supports but the Church says violate its teachings.
Several federal laws that have been in force since the 1970s protect health-care workers who do not want to participate in abortion and other procedures they find morally objectionable. The Bush administration said the new policy was designed to ensure those laws were enforced.
Shortly after taking office, Obama announced plans to roll back the Bush conscience-clause policy, which cut off federal funding for thousands of state and local governments, hospitals, health plans, clinics and other entities if they did not accommodate health-care workers who refused to participate in procedures they felt violated their personal, moral or religious beliefs. Critics of the Bush rule said it greatly expanded the types of people in the medical field who could object to procedures and the scope of health care covered by the protection.
Some people prefer to use natural medicines that are not covered under health insurance plans. Liberty, in the areas of body and finances, should be available to all those that wish for it, and not just those that the government deems as credible.
Posted by: Joann | July 03, 2009 at 03:59 AM