When It Comes to Abortion, We Have the Right to Heed Our Own Conscience

WASHINGTON, DC, Jan 1 — Did we fall asleep last night and wake up this morning in another dimension– a surreal place where the authorities mock American ideals and tell us that the Founding Fathers had it all wrong, that we are not free to think, do what we believe is right and follow our conscience? We must obey the powers that be? Take Joe Biden’s latest effort to control our lives; his maniacal effort to demand we kill babies in the womb whether we like it or not.

Mr. Biden is a self-proclaimed “devout Catholic,” a religion that teaches us that murder is a sin, yet he is willing to risk his own soul to disregard that holy commandment; he wants to make it the law of the land that we can kill unborn infants, whether we like it or not, and follow him into hell. Putting religious doctrine aside, let’s focus on the legacy of our Founding Fathers — the U.S. Constitution. It clearly and justly states that we have the right to heed our own conscience when faced with moral decisions, decisions such as whether we believe that abortion is wrong.  

Former President Donald Trump sought to enshrine the right of choice when it comes to abortion. In 2019, he issued the decree known as Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights in Health Care, officially declaring that “the freedoms of conscience and of religious exercise are foundational rights protected by the Constitution.” It clearly and unabashedly provides “protections from discrimination for health care entities that do not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions [under programs funded by the Department of Health and Human Services].” Alas, the 2019 rule was dismissed by federal courts when progressive cities, states, the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood sued.

But what about the Constitution? Doesn’t it protect doctors and health care providers who believe that abortions are antithetical to their conscience rights? Indeed it does and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals officially dismissed Biden’s dismissal of the 2019 ruling. In doing so, the court declared that the government could not force medical personnel of faith to violate their beliefs. 

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Arkansas handed the Biden administration another challenge in early December in the case of the Sisters of Mercy vs Becerra. Senior counsel Luke Goodrich at the non-profit, public-interest legal foundation known as the Becket institute represented the Sisters of Mercy in that case. That victory, he said “sets an important precedent that religious healthcare professionals are free to practice medicine in accordance with their consciences and experienced professional judgment.  The government’s attempt to force doctors to go against their consciences was bad for patients, bad for doctors, and bad for religious liberty.”

One can only pray that legal actions will continue to support the pro-life movement lest we evolve into a race of barbarian baby killers. Court decisions aid the cause but appear to have little impact on the growing, worldwide threat of anti-life sentiment. Since the Supreme Court overturned the 50-year-old Roe vs Wade pro-abortion ruling, a vast number of anti-life criminals have adopted a scorched-earth response. Acts of violence and mayhem on pro-life believers and entities have been growing unchecked as a result.

A report compiled by the DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family concluded that: “Pro-abortion politicians from President Joe Biden on down haven’t just been silent about the attacks on pro-life organizations. They’ve helped fan the flames … Biden’s ‘unity speech’ last month in Philadelphia rang hollow for many reasons, his silence on pro-abortion violence among them … The Biden administration should—at the very least—call for an end to the violence. The FBI must answer for its selective enforcement of the law.”

John Grimaldi served on the first non-partisan communications department in the New York State Assembly and is a founding member of the Board of Directors of Priva Technologies, Inc. He has served for more than thirty years as a Trustee of Daytop Village Foundation, which oversees a worldwide drug rehabilitation network.