California health care workers who commit to providing abortions could see their student loans repaid and prospective abortion industry workers could receive scholarships, if lawmakers retain a $20 million proposal in the state’s new draft budget.
The proposal drew criticism from pro-life advocates who worry it creates terrible incentives.
Kathleen Domingo, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, called the proposal “a gross overreach of what most Californians would want our tax dollars to go to.”
“There aren’t a lot of providers who like to do abortions. Abortion is not something that medical students are excited to be a part of. We’ve known that,” she told Catholic News Agency Jan. 18. “The reason why abortion is not provided in certain areas has nothing to do with laws or regulations. There’s no doctor in the area who wants to perform abortions. They don’t want to do it.”
The California budget summary section for Health and Human Services is 32 pages, with a section dedicated to “reproductive health.” Pro-abortion rights advocates consider abortion to be reproductive health, and abortion is addressed in this section….
The summary says $20 million in grant funding would go to the general fund of the Department of Health Care Access and Information “to provide scholarships and loan repayments to a variety of health care provider types that commit to providing reproductive health care services.” The goal of this funding is “to support California’s clinical infrastructure of reproductive health care services.”
Domingo was very critical of this proposal.
“This is appalling,” she said. “It’s a big deal to pay off medical student loans.”
Students graduate medical school with what seems to be “crippling debt.” For Domingo, incentivizing them to go into the abortion industry is “tantamount to coercion from the state….”
According to Domingo, this section of the California budget is directly related to the recommendations of the California Future of Abortion Council. In December 2020, the council released a 14-page report on policy proposals to respond to possible changes if the U.S. Supreme Court revisits Roe v. Wade and other precedents that mandate permissive abortion laws nationwide.
The council is made up of some 40 California organizations. Its members include seven Planned Parenthood affiliates, three regional ACLU affiliates, and the Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Newsom has pledged to make California a “sanctuary” for abortion access, while State Sen. President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, wrote a letter introducing the council’s December report and voicing gratitude for a partnership with the council….
According to the abortion council, lawmakers should also “optimize loan repayment to increase retention and recruitment of clinicians who provide abortion by allocating funds for health care workforce programs.”
Domingo said that these proposals are part of the initial budget, not necessarily the final budget scheduled for May.
While the state legislature has a Democratic supermajority and Newsom has made strong commitments to expanded abortion access, Domingo said there are many moderates and others in the legislature “who might look at some of these things and say it is going way too far.”
“In terms of advocacy, it’s very important to make our voice heard,” she said, encouraging grassroots involvement to voice opposition to the proposal.
Californians also need to know about resources that are “life-affirming for women in need.”
“There are so many things that can be done to help people on the ground,” said Domingo. “We would really like to make California a place where women know that they are supported, that children and families are supported all the time.”
“We want to prove that we don’t need abortion expansion in California,” she said. In her view, California should aspire to be a place that “respects women, welcomes children, and protects families.”
The proposed budget would also remove requirements for follow-up visits and ultrasound for chemical abortions that currently apply under MediCal, the state’s Medicaid program for low-income individuals. Backers of abortion have stressed the importance of flexibility in medication abortion given the limits of the coronavirus pandemic….
Other budget proposals include $20 million in one-time funding for the state’s Department of Health Care Access and Information “to assist reproductive health care facilities in securing their physical and information technology infrastructure and to enhance facility security….”
Many in the immigrant community do not want this, according to Domingo.
“We’re in a situation where, particularly immigrant families, are appalled that their children, who now can qualify for MediCal, have access to all kinds of things they would never want their children to access.”
In California’s political context, the drive to expand health care access not only means expanding access to abortion, but also assisted suicide. California lawmakers last year passed a bill to reduce the waiting period for assisted suicide from 15 days to 48 hours and to eliminate a final attestation form, among other changes.
The above comes from a Jan. 19 story on Angelus News.
What would it take for a Catholic politician to get excommunicated?
Ever increasing public advocacy of mass killings would seem to be an adequate reason.
Excommunication is a matter of severe mercy and a last resort. Yet, for the sake of Mr. Newsom’s soul, a scandalized Church and a watching world, it seems it may be necessary.
In the 1960’s, Archbishop Joseph Rummel of New Orleans mercifully excommunicated three Catholic segregationists. Prior to that, he communicated with them privately and then approved an editorial in the archdiocese’s official newspaper that warned Catholic legislators of possible excommunication. It is known that at least the leader of the group repented and was reconciled to Christ and the Church.
Pray that our governor repent and know the forgiveness available from the Lord of life.
We Catholics cannot be like Pilate and wash innocent blood from our hands.
I don’t think you can excommunicate someone for that
There are not many things a lay person can be excommunicated for.
Procuring an abortion is one but that is not exactly what he is doing here.
He may be an apostate, heretic or schismatic; then he has incurred a latae sententiae excommunication but I do not know. He is by his own admission “a rebel.”
You may want to read the section on sanctions in the Code of Canon Law. See specifically Canons 1364 and 1369. I’m not a canon lawyer, but I think there are numerous reasons persons may be excommunicated. And, isn’t Mr. Newsom involved in procuring abortion by establishing a “task force” to expand it and by funding it?
Do you think Archbishop Rummel was wrong for excommunicating those racial segregationists?
In 1987, San Jose’s Bishop Dumaine excommunicated two Vietnamese leaders for a protest they organized.
Check out the link below from the Vatican’s website. As you noted, Mr. Newsom may well be an apostate (or a heretic. He is not merely a schismatic.) And, he most certainly has, in a public show or speech, gravely injured good morals (Canon 1369) regarding abortion and homosexual behavior.
https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib6-cann1364-1399_en.html
See also 1 Corinthians 5:1-13. As St. Paul notes, “so that his spirit may be saved.” Doesn’t that apply to Mr. Newsom? God loves him and God’s kindness leads to repentance. (“Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” Rom. 2:4)
Jesuit-educated, baby-killer Newsom. The Gov. of Nebraska declared his state to be a pro-life state last month, on the eve of their annual Walk for Life. Maybe I will move to his state.
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
Can this man do anything more demonic? The presence of evil surrounding these issues is palpable.
The man piles mortal sin on top of mortal sin. But he’ll confess on his deathbed after living a long and wealthy and powerful life, and he’ll get to walk into heaven.
People cannot bring themselves out of mortal sin. We need to pray for him.
We don’t want anyone to go to hell.
Pray for his conversion and his repentance.
Pray for God to have mercy on him.
Don’t count on it. People usually die as they have lived. He could get a blood clot in his brain and be dead by natural means in a split second without a chance for conversion. This man is playing Russian Roulette with his soul.
I meant “aneuryism in the brain” in my last post.
It’s not coercion to pay off student loans. It’s incentive.
“8 Lord, I love the refuge of your house,
the site of the dwelling-place of your glory.
9 Do not take me away with sinners,
nor my life with the men of blood,
10 In whose hands there is a plot,
their right hands full of bribery.”….Psalm 26:8-10
Ladies and gentlemen, behold the future President of the United States.
While I dislike what you wrote, I fear it may be true.
“More ways to expand California’s abortions”
Ultimately, this will abort California’s expansion.