Media AWOL on a pro-life Chicago ‘Flagship’ event on 3/23

An event took place at noon on March 23rd at Chicago’s Federal Plaza.  Even though 2,500 individual showed on what was a nasty day weather-wise, the media was basically AWOL.   

The occasion was “Stand Up For Religious Freedom: Stop Obama’s HHS Mandate.”       StandUpFor ReligiousFreedom.com  

The deplorable media response can rightly be attributed to the undisputed left-of-center news coverage as the mainstream media’s confirms time and again its love feast with Chicago’s own, President Barack Hussein Obama, whose Obamacare mandate is now on trial at the Supreme Court.  

I was all set to travel by a bus hired to transport people to the event from the Libertyville area in northern Illinois, when an unforeseen event forced me to cancel my bus reservation.

What made the pro-life Chicago “Flagship” event and similar events held in 146 other cities from the East Coast to Hawaii so unique is that the event was scheduled at noon in each of the local time zones.   It is estimated that upwards to 60,000 concerned pro-life individual attended the 146 individual city event. 

Carl Lambrecht, a Highland Park resident and fellow conservative Republican, likewise a member of the Republican Assembly of Lake County and a non-Jewish member of the Republican Jewish Coalition, attended the rally and gave me a handout he received which addressed the following four question:

What is the HHS Mandate and how does It violate religious freedom?

In January, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a mandate under the Affordable Care Act (also known as “Obamacare”) that requires all employer health plans to provide free contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs, regardless of any moral or religious objections.

The ministries of institutions Ike Catholic schools, hospitals and charities–educating the young, caring for the sick, feeding the hungry–are not considered sufficiently religious to qualify for the Mandate’s narrow “religious exemption.”

Not only will such institutions be forced to provide services that directly contradict the teachings of their faith, but — more alarmingly — the federal government is claiming the right to decide for religious institutions what constitutes their ministry.

Isn’t this really all about providing access to contraception?

No:  contraceptives are already widely available.  “Access” to something does no mean having it paid for by someone else — especially against their moral convictions.

But the HHS Mandate doesn’t stop with free contraceptives:  it also requires employer health plans to provide free sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs.

More importantly, as described above, the American ideal of religious liberty is at stake.  This isn’t really about contraception — it’s about the First Amendment.

Didn’t President Obama work out these religious objections?

In February, President Obama offered an “accommodation” whereby insurance providers, rather than employers, would pay for the services to which religious employers have moral objections.  But this does not solve the problem.

At the end of the day, the HHS Mandate still forces all employers to provide health plans with free contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs.

Moreover, the assault on our cherished freedom of religion — with the federal government now defining for all of us what constitutes authentic religious ministry — continues.

What can I do to help stop the HHS Mandate?

1.  Get this Fact Sheet from our website:  StandUpFor ReligiousFreedom.com.

2.  Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask your Congressman and both U.S. Senators to support ligation overturning the HHS Mandate.

3.  Vote for candidates who respect freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.

4.  Visit our website and sign onto the effort and learn more ways we can work together to stop the HHS Mandate. 

On March 23 John Jensen posted an excellent summary of Chicago’s pro-life event, “Chicago:  Stand Up Ground Zero.”   In Jensen’s post rally speakers are listed with their comments, along with photos.

As described by John Jensen:  “When Eric [Pro-Life Action League Executive Director and Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom Co-Chairman, Eric Scheidler] announced that the Chicago crowd was the largest crowd of any rally site that had reported in thus far, the 2,500 rally participants erupted in applause.”

Also reported is that the Chicago Rally ended with the singing of “Amazing Grace” which is the standard way of closing a Pro-Life Action League event.       http://standupforreligiousfreedom.com/2012/groundzero/