Religion & Law

Michael links here to (and, I assume, agrees substantially with?) this Commonweal post, suggesting that the Freedom of Choice Act is just a "phantom" onto which defeated and depressed Republican pro-lifers have latched in the wake of the recent election.  In my view, it is true, as the post indicates, that Obama was merely "pandering" when he promised abortion-rights activists that the FOCA would be his "first priority" (which is not to say, of course, that he would not sign it if it were enacted, or that he would not spend capital to get it enacted, were it possible such an investment would pay off, or that a candidate -- of either party -- should not be judged at least in part with reference to those to whom he feels the need to pander).  It would be a mistake, though, for anyone to think that, because the Act itself is not likely to pass the current Congress in its current form, there are not serious, and non-phantom-ish, legislative threats to religious freedom and the pro-life cause looming.  See this piece, by Melinda Henneberger, on "Obama's threat to Catholic hospitals".  And, of course, the odds against FOCA do nothing to change the facts that non-phantom changes are almost certainly coming with respect to public funding of embryo-destroying research and of elective abortions, here and abroad.