Addendum: Is FOCA a real threat?

As a follow-up to Russell Shaw's post below, it's worth highlighting a couple of recent news analysis pieces on the question in light of (modest) gains made by pro-life Democrats in the last election. Those gains would arguably make it harder for the Democratic Party to champion FOCA because it would put pro-life Democrats in the position of either bucking party leadership or risking re-election. But not necessarily.

OSV contributing editor Valerie Schmalz writes in our Dec. 14 issue:

"The strategy the Democratic Party used to carry more conservative congressional districts may soften the abortion-rights agenda of President-elect Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress, the leader of Democrats for Life [Kristen Day] contends.

"Others [like Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List] say the new pro-life Democrats may find themselves under such great pressure that it will be hard to hold the line." Read the entire piece.

The Christian Science Monitor makes a similar calculus in yesterday's edition, with a special focus on whether FOCA would wipe out conscience clauses that protect the right of doctors and hospitals to decline to perform abortions.

Meanwhile, Jan. 24-25 has been set as the weekend for the big push in U.S. parishes and dioceses to obtain signatures on postcards to Congress opposing FOCA. The postcard language calls FOCA "the most radical and divisive pro-abortion bill ever introduced in Congress," asks the recipient lawmaker to oppose it, and asks for a written response. It's organized by the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment, which also coordinated the anti-FOCA congressional postcard campaign early in the Clinton administration. The response from Catholics in their parishes was said to be massive, and FOCA was stopped.