As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the nation's 44th president during the week marking the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, two U.S. cardinals made strong statements on behalf of those seeking an end to abortion.

It would be "a terrible mistake" for President Barack Obama to reverse current policies on embryonic stem-cell research, conscience protection and other life-related matters, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told him in a new letter.

Such actions "could introduce significant negative and divisive factors into our national life, at a time when we need to come together to address the serious challenges facing our people," said Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago in a letter dated Jan. 16 and made public Jan. 19.

The letter came less than a week after Cardinal George sent another letter to Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden and each member of Congress outlining the bishops' broad policy agenda as the new administration and Congress begin their work.

"I expect that some want you to take executive action soon to reverse current policies against government-sponsored destruction of unborn human life," Cardinal George said. "I urge you to consider that this could be a terrible mistake --- morally, politically and in terms of advancing the solidarity and well-being of our nation's people."

Separately, Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali said that commitment to the American "ideals of liberty and justice for all" also requires a concern for all human life.

"The taking of human life is as unjust as anything can be," said the cardinal, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, in a telephone interview with Catholic News Service Jan. 19. "It is inconsistent to claim to be just and not to reprobate the taking of innocent human life."

Cardinal Rigali also called on the new president to live up to his vow to be "the president of all people" and to "unite all people."

'Focus on what will unite us'
In his letter, Cardinal George mentioned the recently issued Department of Health and Human Services regulation protecting the conscience rights of health care providers and institutions; the so-called Mexico City policy barring the use of U.S. family planning funds to promote or perform abortions in developing nations; and current embryonic stem-cell policy prohibiting federal funding of research involving embryonic stem-cell lines created after 2001.

Cardinal George said he hoped the new president would "consider these comments in the spirit in which they are intended, as an invitation to set aside political pressures and ideologies and focus on the priorities and challenges that will unite us as a nation."

"Again I want to express our hopes for your administration, and our offer to cooperate in advancing the common good and protecting the poor and vulnerable in these challenging times," he added.

The cardinal noted that during his campaign Obama "spoke often about a need to reduce abortions" and had said he had no definite answer when asked at what point a baby has human rights.

"I think your remarks provide a basis for common ground," Cardinal George said. "Uncertainty as to when human rights begin provides no basis for compelling others to violate their conviction that these rights exist from the beginning. After all, those people may be right.

"And if the goal is to reduce abortions, that will not be achieved by involving the government in expanding and promoting abortions," he added.

Commenting specifically on the HHS conscience guarantees, Cardinal George said the regulation was "a long-overdue measure for implementing three statutes enacted by Congress over the last 35 years."

"An administration committed to faithfully implementing and enforcing the laws of the United States will want to retain this common-sense regulation, which explicitly protects the rights of health professionals who favor or oppose abortion to serve the basic health needs of their communities," he said.

"Suggestions that government involvement in health care will be aimed at denying conscience, or excluding Catholic and other health care providers from participation in serving the public good, could threaten much-needed health care reform at the outset," the cardinal added.

He said the Mexico City policy, first implemented in 1984, "has wrongly been attacked as a restriction on foreign aid for family planning" but instead ensures that family planning funds "are not diverted to organizations dedicated to performing and promoting abortions instead of reducing them."

"Once the clear line between family planning and abortion is erased, the idea of using family planning to reduce abortions becomes meaningless, and abortion tends to replace contraception as the means for reducing family size," said the cardinal's letter to Obama.

On embryonic stem-cell research, Cardinal George said "recent startling advances in reprogramming adult cells," along with progress in research using adult and cord-blood stem cells, make any change in current policy "especially pointless."

"To divert scarce funds away from these promising avenues for research and treatment toward the avenue that is most morally controversial as well as most medically speculative would be a sad victory of politics over science," he said.

'Repudiate FOCA'
Cardinal Rigali told CNS that any efforts to reverse current government policies that protect human life and the conscience rights of health care institutions and providers "would tear our nation apart," he said, calling on Obama to repudiate his campaign support for the Freedom of Choice Act.

A legal analysis of the most recent version of FOCA by the general counsel's staff of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops warned that it would wipe out many existing state laws and impede states' ability to regulate abortion.

Although FOCA had not yet been introduced in the 111th Congress as of Jan. 20, many in the pro-life community fear that elements of it will be introduced and passed piecemeal as a way of gradually requiring American taxpayers to support abortion and contraceptives that cause abortion in more and more circumstances.

To make their opposition to FOCA clear, the U.S. bishops are encouraging Catholics and others in the pro-life community to participate in a postcard campaign to Congress.

The cards, which each participant is asked to send to his or her two senators and one representative, read in part: "At this time of serious national challenges, Americans should unite to serve the good of all, born and unborn. The Freedom of Choice Act, the most radical and divisive pro-abortion bill ever introduced in Congress, would create a 'fundamental right' to abortion that government could not limit but would have to support."

The postcard campaign was to be launched Jan. 24 and 25 and was expected to continue at least through the first two weekends in February.

"We want Catholics and all people of good will to realize what is at stake -- the greatest challenge to justice that has ever existed," Cardinal Rigali said in the interview.

Speaking three days before the 36th annual March for Life marking the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, the cardinal said that although "the challenges are enormous the forces of good and the interest in and commitment to life are at an all-time high."

Though it may be easy to become "preoccupied with the individual challenges" to life, he said, the present moment also must be seen as a time of "deep hope, from the viewpoint of our faith."

He said he looked forward to the March for Life and especially to walking with "the many young people who have taken this to heart."

"It is becoming clearer and clearer" to young people and to others, the cardinal said, "what we hold and why we hold it."

---CNS