May 14, 2001

Congressman Joseph K. Knollenberg
17th District
30833 Northwestern Highway, Suite 100
Farmington Hills, MI 48334

Dear Congressman Knollenberg,

I am writing this letter to ask you to support and cosponsor H.R. 4691, the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (ANDA), introduced by Congressman Michael Bilirakis (R-FL).

This is a great opportunity for Congress to assure Americans of their right to exercise freedom of conscience in health care. The Christus Medicus Foundation has been a driving force behind health care right of conscience. I have been educating policymakers, religious leaders, health care professionals and payers on the need for conscience protection in health care at the state and federal level, since July, 1999.

Passage of ANDA is urgently needed to protect health care providers. This bill reaffirms a basic principle: no health care provider should be forced to perform or participate in abortions. ANDA simply clarifies what should be obvious-that the term “health care entity” in existing law includes the full range of participants involved in providing health care, such as health care professionals, health plans, hospitals and other health facilities. ANDA also strengthens existing law by providing that health care entities should not be forced by government to pay for abortions.

There is a coordinated national effort to force health care providers to participate in abortions. In Alaska, the state supreme court has ruled that some community hospitals must perform abortions against their will. An HMO in New York is under increasing pressure to make abortion referrals. In Connecticut a certificate of need was denied to a proposed outpatient surgical center that would have declined to perform abortions, after abortion activists intervened in the proceedings. A hospital merger in New Hampshire was dismantled after abortion activists intervened with the state attorney general. In Florida, the City Council of St. Petersburg forced a private hospital to leave a non-profit consortium because the consortium followed a pro-life ethical policy. ANDA will protect health care providers like these and counteract efforts to make all providers perform abortions.

I look forward to hearing back from you that you are in full support of HR 4691 and have added your name as a cosponsor.

Very sincerely yours,

Michael J. O’Dea
Executive Director