Melinda Hennenberger has a few strong words for the President-Elect.  Sign the Freedom of Choice Act (which, any reproductive health advocate could tell you, Congress is a long way away from passing), and Barack Obama will be responsible for hobbling our entire, already-compromised health care system. Why? According to Hennenberger, FOCA would require Catholic hospitals to perform abortions, and the church hierarchy would rather "turn off the lights" than provide comprehensive reproductive health care. 

FOCA targets state laws that limit abortion access, yes.  But FOCA would not have the conscience clause repercussions that Hennenberger suggests it might. 

Hennenberger writes, "While there is strenuous debate among legal experts on the matter, many believe the act would invalidate the freedom-of-conscience laws on the books in 46 states. These are the laws that allow Catholic hospitals and health providers that receive public funds through Medicaid and Medicare to opt out of performing abortions. Without public funds, these health centers couldn't stay open; if forced to do abortions, they would sooner close their doors. Even the prospect of selling the institutions to other providers wouldn't be an option, the bishops have said, because that would constitute 'material cooperation with an intrinsic evil.'"

Would FOCA do as Hennenberger says - force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions? 

Unequivocally no, says Jill Morrison, senior counsel at the National Women's Law Center. Federal conscience clause law, such as the Church Amendment, states that simply receiving public funding does not turn a hospital into a "state actor," Morrison explains.  "FOCA must be read consistently with existing federal law, unless the new law explicitly provides that it is intended to repeal existing law." 

Morrison adds, "A hospital is not a state actor, and cannot be magically transformed into one due to its getting Federal funding, as set forth in the Church Amendment." 

Hennenberger goes on to defend the Department of Health and Human Services's proposed new, expanded provider conscience regulations that would allow providers to refuse to refer women for critical medical care - like abortion in the case of life-threatening pregnancy, or emergency contraception after sexual assault - that a provider may opt out of providing him or herself.