Hold Your Horses! FOCA Battle Not Over Yet
Posted by Mary-Louise Kurey (April 2, 2009 at 4:51 pm)
Some pro-lifers are thinking the FOCA battle is over because one of the main sponsors of the bill, Sara Feigenholtz, sent an email to a dedicated pro-life activist stating that the bill has been “recalled,” shelved by its supporters for the year.
However, let’s not count our chickens before they’re hatched. Last night, abortion advocates moved the bill into position so that it could be passed in 24 hours by holding it on Calendar Order of Second Reading - Short Debate.
At the time of writing, there is much jockeying taking place in Springfield, including committed pro-lifers reaching out to legislators to defeat the bill. Things look good, but keep those calls coming! State Reps still need to know that this bill continues to be unacceptable with Amendment #2. If you haven’t called you State Rep yet to let him or her know that Amendment #2 does not satisfy your concerns, please do so today!
Hopefully by tomorrow around this time, we will know for certain that the opposition doesn’t have the votes and the leadership has chosen not to extend the deadline. At that point, we will truly know that FOCA is dead for the time being. Until that moment of certainty, we need to keep persevering!
To clarify, we have heard this news from more reps than just Sara. Some activists also heard separately from Greg Harris and Karen May that there has not been agreement on the wording of the amendments, and consequently, the bill will die. However, I agree that we should not let up until the bill is officially dead. Let’s look forward to the end of the day tomorrow!
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:54 pm