Maryland Catholic Conference And Its Bishops Smear Shame On Themselves Once Again

For the past few weeks, pro-life Maryland citizens have been conducting a petition drive to get HB937, the "Abortion Access Act" on the November ballot for general vote.  We needed 25,000 valid signatures by May 31st.  Sadly, we did not get that number, but failed by only a very thin margin.

Sadder and even infuriating is one key reason why we didn't make that threshold.  When approached for their assistance, the Maryland Catholic Conference decided that the referendum couldn't be won, so they refused to contribute to the effort.  The three area bishops likewise refused to cooperate.  Consequently the bulk of the pastors would not allow petition signatures to be collected in their churches.

The organizers of the petition drive believe that had all the churches been available for signature collection, that we would have succeeded in meeting that threshold and would have been well on our way to obtaining the total of 75,000 signatures.

While the signatures were being collected, I checked the MCC website a few times.  Sure enough, there was not one mention of the petition-collection drive.  The MCC's dismal dereliction of duty was in fact a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Let's rehearse some of the provisions built within HB937.  First, it will allow non-physicians to perform abortions.  It will force insurance companies to fund abortions, without any co-pay or deductible limitations; that would impact health policies that the Church and MCC provide their employees, wouldn't it?

Now that HB937 cannot be challenged, it will pave the way for more butchery of babies and their mothers.  For their inexcusable refusal to allow good people to combat this, the leaders of the Maryland Catholic Conference, the three bishops included, may well have blood on their hands in the coming months.