Pro-life leaders around the country are voicing their objections to a move by the Obama Administration to rescind regulations giving federal protection to the conscience rights of health care providers.

While attending L.A.'s sixth annual March for Life down Ventura Boulevard in Encino that drew over 700 participants March 14, Joe Langfeld, deputy director of Human Life Alliance based in Minneapolis, Minn., told The Tidings that eliminating protection for health workers' conscience rights is both "terrible" and unconstitutional.

"The reason it's a terrible idea is that there's a health care crisis in their country. There is a shortage of doctors and nurses, particularly in rural areas. And," stressed Langfeld, "If you make it so that health workers can't practice, or they have to violate their conscience and their faith beliefs to practice, they'll quit practicing so that shortage will become worse."

This consequence of eliminating protection for conscience rights, Langfeld added, "is going to create a health care crisis in this country unlike what we've ever seen before." He noted the U.S. constitution allows its citizens freedom of religion which, he said, is the best argument against taking away conscience rights of health workers who decline to participate in abortions based on their religious beliefs.

Sister of Social Service Paula Vandegaer, a member of the archdiocesan Commission for Catholic Life Issues and founder/program director of International Life Services, concurs with Langfeld. "Religion and the pursuit of religion has been respected by our government from the days of our founding fathers," said Sister Vandegaer. "To turn it around now is a major change in the spirit and tone of our government."

"We have to make a special push to protect the conscience rights of Catholic nurses and doctors and others who don't want to have any association with abortion," said Father Peter West, a member of the organization Priests for Life who traveled from Staten Island, New York, to attend the recent L.A. March for Life sponsored by the Knights of Columbus Van Nuys Council.

Father West noted the Priests for Life website, www.priestsforlife.org, has instructions for sending comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regarding the move to rescind conscience protections for health care workers. All comments to HHS must be sent no later than 11:59 p.m. on April 9, 2009.

Bill May, director of Catholics for the Common Good, a San Francisco-based national lay apostolate for the evangelization of culture, said he is preparing an Action Alert which will be e-mailed nationally to supporters and posted on the group's website at www.ccgaction.com.

"We are going to be very, very active on this. It's critical in this time and culture when there is so much social pressure to cut ethical corners," said May.