George W. Bush - Friend of the Unborn and Defender of Religious Freedom

I voted for George W. Bush 3 times: once to be Governor of Texas in 1994, and twice to be President of the United States in 2000 and 2004.

Despite some serious shortcomings on President Bush's part, as well as my serious public policy differences with him regarding his execution of the War in Iraq, his administration's use of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques", and the fiscal unsoundness of his domestic policy agenda, I am nevertheless fairly pleased overall with my decisions to vote for him on those multiple occasions.

Donald McClarey (writing at American Catholic) and Hierothee (writing at Liturgy - Cosmos - Sex) point to a primary example of why I'm proud of those votes:

A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job-discrimination laws.

The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their “religious beliefs or moral convictions.”

It would also prevent hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices and drugstores from requiring employees with religious or moral objections to “assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity” financed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

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Obama has said the proposal will raise new hurdles to women seeking reproductive health services, like abortion and some contraceptives. Michael Leavitt, the health and human services secretary, said that was not the purpose.

Officials at the Health and Human Services Department said they intended to issue a final version of the rule within days. Aides and advisers to Obama said he would try to rescind it, a process that could take three to six months.

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The proposal is supported by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Health Association, which represents Catholic hospitals.

Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, said that in recent years, “we have seen a variety of efforts to force Catholic and other health care providers to perform or refer for abortions and sterilizations.”

(emphasis added)

Those who assert that the Republicans in general and George W. Bush in particular have done nothing for the pro-life cause are, quite honestly, liars.

Maybe Bush and the GOP haven't done enough, or maybe they've put pro-life efforts on the backburner when they mistakenly believed other matters took precedent, but they've actually done quite a lot to advance the cause of the unborn.

Others have done yeoman's work in pointing out those pro-life achievements. And this is just one example among many in which President Bush has proven himself to be a friend of the unborn and a defender of religious freedom.