Just How "Catholic" is the Catholic News Service?

By Ronald J. Rychlak, University of Mississippi School of Law

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), a bill proposed in the 110th U.S. Congress, declared that “it is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child; terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability; or terminate a pregnancy after viability when necessary to protect her life or her health.” If passed and signed into law, it would overturn virtually every legal restriction on abortion, including limits on partial-birth abortion and parental notification. While on the campaign trial, President Obama said: “The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act.” In fact, he was one of 19 senators who co-sponsored the legislation.The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has strongly opposed the Freedom of Choice Act. In a statement entitled The Freedom of Choice Act: Most Radical Abortion Legislation in U.S. History, the USCCB’s Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities argued that FOCA would go “far beyond even Roe.” Among other things, “FOCA will bar laws protecting a right of conscientious objection to abortion.” In other words, Catholic hospitals could be forced to perform abortions.
Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance, said at the November bishops’ meeting that passage of FOCA “could mean discontinuing obstetrics in our hospitals, and we may need to consider taking the drastic step of closing our Catholic hospitals entirely…. I do not think I’m being alarmist in considering such drastic steps.”
Imagine, then, my surprise to open our diocesan newspaper only to read in a Catholic News Service story written by CNS reporter Nancy Frazier O’Brien: “no Catholic hospital in the United States is in danger of closing because of the Freedom of Choice Act…. [T]he Freedom of Choice Act died with the 110th Congress and, a week after the inauguration of President Barack Obama, has not been reintroduced.”
O’Brien referenced the Catholic Health Association’s president, Sister Carol Keehan, in order to explain that FOCA “poses no threat to Catholic hospitals or to the conscience rights of those who work there.” She went on to quote Bishop Robert N. Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla., a member of the CHA’s board of trustees, saying: “there is no plan to shut down any hospital if [FOCA] passes.… There’s no sense of ominous danger threatening health care institutions.” O’Brien blamed concerns and “confusion over FOCA” on “misleading e-mails,” “false Internet rumors,” “blogs and Web sites,” and “anti-FOCA groups” on Facebook.
A close and very generous reading of the quotes in O’Brien’s article leaves some room for interpretation about what the people were saying. Sister Keehan seemed to be suggesting that Catholic hospitals could oppose the law in a passive way without compromising their ideals, the way people fought for civil rights in the 1960s. The same might arguably be said of Bishop Lynch, especially since quotations might be taken in different contexts. O’Brien, however, left herself no such wiggle room.
This piece is clearly intended to soften up Catholic opposition to FOCA and to the Obama administration. O’Brien tries to assure readers that FOCA poses no threat to Catholic sensibilities; there is no danger. She actually argues that the new administration has had a whole week, and it has not yet reintroduced the legislation. In fact, she explains, FOCA is dead.
The USCCB does not see things that way. It is currently conducting a postcard campaign to “Fight FOCA.” The related USCCB web page explains that “many pro-life laws and policies are subject to attack and reversal. The new Congress includes the largest number of pro-abortion members since 1993.” The bishops go on to explain that “63 pro-abortion groups have publicly submitted a comprehensive 55-page blueprint for their agenda to the incoming Administration. Passing FOCA is a priority….”
The author of a piece like O’Brien’s, of course, is primarily responsible for its content, but there are others. Those who were quoted in the article, if taken out of context, need to clarify their positions. The Catholic News Service decided to publish and distribute the article despite the clear position of the USCCB. Frankly, the article is so out of line with everything we know, even those diocesan newspapers that ran it should have known better.
Our bishops have taken a strong leadership position on FOCA. Other Catholic leaders and entities should follow their example. Unfortunately, the CNS article by Nancy Frazier O’Brien seeks to undercut them.