American Bishops Shout “Fire!” After Helping to Set the Blaze, by Robert G. Marshall

By Robert G. Marshall, Catholic Culture, April 23, 2024

Bob Marshall served 26 years in the Virginia House of Delegates and was the chief House sponsor of the 2006 voter-approved Virginia Marriage Amendment and a ban on late term abortion. He recently wrote Reclaiming the Republic: How Christians and Other Conservatives Can Win Back America (TAN Books). Previously, he co-authored Blessed are the Barren, a social history of Planned Parenthood (Ignatius Press). …

After first endorsing and supporting the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), America’s Catholic Bishops are now opposing the Biden Administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) pro-abortion regulations as published on April 14, 2024. But these immoral regulations are a direct consequence of the PWFA. They were completely foreseeable, and the bishops ignored many pro-life warnings against supporting the Act. Consequently, under the authority of the PWFA, the EEOC regulations will now affect all employers in the United States with 15 or more employees.

While the Catholic bishops along with some other sources have claimed since the Fall of 2023 that the Biden Administration hijacked the prolife purpose of the PWFA, the public record shows that the Catholic Bishops worked closely with and followed the lead of Democrat Congressional Members to produce the final wording of the PWFA signed by the President. The public record is equally clear that the Catholic bishops and their staff ignored warnings from Republican Members of Congress and prolife groups regarding the pro-abortion consequences of the PWFA. In fact, the Bishops opposed corrective amendment language to the PWFA proposed by Republicans and supported by prolife and religious groups to expressly exclude PWFA-covered businesses from having to provide abortion and other morally problematic “services” to pregnant women.

This analysis describes the legislative steps leading to this awkward situation which now requires all business men and women across America, as well as religious schools and universities, to pay for and provide abortion and other morally problematic services (such as in vitro pregnancies), or to divert operating funds to pay for lawyers to challenge this law. ….

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