Commentary

The U.S. House voted on Friday night to disapprove a new law adopted by the D.C. city council that would require pro-Life groups operating within the city to hire persons who support abortion rights.

It will probably take a moment for our readers to get their mind around the basic problem, because it is so bizarre. 

Under the rubric of “non-discrimination”, the DC City Council has approved an ordinance called the “Reproductive Health Nondiscrimination Act”. It prevents employers from discriminating on the basis of a potential employee’s “reproductive health decision-making”.

Since our founding, the powers of the local government in the nation’s capitol are proscribed in order to protect the national government from being hampered by the decisions of ward bosses. Thus, Congress has the ability to review and veto any ordinance adopted by the DC city government. This particular law provides a tremendous lesson in why the Founder’s were profoundly correct in limiting the powers of the DC government.

While Obama and his Democrat comrades point to language in the DC law which would exempt “religious entities” from its provisions – there are many organizations operating in the DC area who fight for preborn children on a daily basis but who will not qualify for the exemption. Among those groups: American Life League, Right to Life, Family Research Council.  While religiously-motivated, these organizations are not strictly “religious” in nature.  You may be sure that Obama and his Planned Parenthood advisors are quite aware of the problem the DC ordinance presents for organizations like ALL.

Obama issued a veto threat of HJR 43 earlier on Friday, which the House brushed aside on a largely partisan basis. 225 Republicans supported the defense of the First Amendment, while 179 Democrats voted to impose draconian restrictions on pro-Life groups operating the nation’s capitol.

In supporting the measure, House Speaker John Boehner issued a statement Friday night:

                “America was founded on the principle of religious freedom, and faith-based employers deserve the ability to hire people who share their beliefs. The measure passed by the DC Council, however, discriminates against religious and pro-Life Americans, violates their conscience rights, and runs completely counter to the ‘free exercise’ clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. As a proud pro-Life Catholic, I condemn this form of discrimination and urge the president to reconsider his veto threat of our joint resolution.”

We are in a dark period of American history, where the core principles which gave rise to the nation are being discarded, ignored and even attacked by one of the major political parties in an organized attempt to impose their political/social agenda on a resistant population. The despicable actions by the political hacks in D.C. are part of a much larger pattern, and the Silent Majority must roust itself soon to defend America and our Constitution.