Catholic parishes are gearing up for another offensive in the war on FOCA (the notorious Freedom of Choice Act that President Obama has promised to sign):

On the past two Sundays, parishioners at the Holy Family Church in Nutley, New Jersey, have received a stark warning: If the Obama administration and Democratic Congress have their way, Catholic hospitals around the country will be forced to close.

The reason? A piece of legislation known as the Freedom Of Choice Act, or FOCA, that opponents believe will force hospitals and doctors to perform abortions even if they have moral opposition to doing so.

Since doctors at Catholic hospitals won’t perform an abortion, the logic goes, the hospitals would have no choice but to shut their doors under FOCA rules.

Abortion rights advocates dismiss the claim, saying it is an effort to distract the public from the real abortion-related issues likely to be taken up by Congress.

But Catholic groups are now making a push to drum up opposition to FOCA, with millions of postcards being distributed in English and Spanish in churches across the country, according to Deirdre McQuade, an assistant director for policy and communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Catholic leaders are asking parishioners to sign three copies of the postcard – one for each senator and one for their representative – and then leave them with their church, which will mail the cards to Washington.

“The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), 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 reads in part. (See the full postcard here.)

Church leaders say FOCA would end requirements for parental consent, legalize partial-birth abortion and overturn so-called “conscience” protections that allow hospitals and health care providers that receive public funds to decline to perform an abortion. (The Bush administration tried to strengthen conscience protections shortly before leaving office, though President Obama ordered a halt to implementing the new guidelines until further review.)

“The [FOCA] law as it currently exists is taking that entire conscience clause away,” said James Goodness, spokesman for Archdiocese of Newark. “And Catholic hospitals will not perform abortions. And if they are told they have to, hospitals are going to have to figure out what they can do.”

Meantime, others do not see a clear and present threat from the legislation.

From CNS:

Internet rumors to the contrary, no Catholic hospital in the United States is in danger of closing because of the Freedom of Choice Act.

As a matter of fact, the Freedom of Choice Act died with the 110th Congress and, a week after the inauguration of President Barack Obama, has not been reintroduced.

But that hasn’t kept misleading e-mails from flying around the Internet, warning of the dire consequences if Obama signs FOCA into law and promoting a “FOCA novena” in the days leading up to Inauguration Day.

The Catholic Health Association “is strongly committed to opposing FOCA and (the board) is unanimous that we would do all we could to oppose it,” said Bishop Robert N. Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla., an elected member of the CHA board of trustees since June 2006.

“But there is no plan to shut down any hospital if it passes,” he added in a Jan. 26 telephone interview. “There’s no sense of ominous danger threatening health care institutions.”

Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who is CHA president and CEO, was equally sure that FOCA poses no threat to Catholic hospitals or to the conscience rights of those who work there.

“I don’t believe that FOCA will pass, although we will continue to monitor all proposed regulations for their potential to help people in this country and for any negative assault on the life issues,” she said.

As introduced in previous congresses, the legislation “has never contained anything that would force Catholic hospitals or Catholic personnel to do abortions or to participate in them,” she added.

But even in a worst-case scenario, if the most dire predictions were to materialize and a federal law were to mandate that all hospitals provide abortion services, “I want to make it very clear that Catholic health care will not close and we will not compromise our principles,” Sister Carol told Catholic News Service Jan. 26.

If necessary, Catholic hospitals will take a lesson from “how people have dealt with unjust laws” in American history, “and we would respond in the same way,” she said.

“A very timely example” of that is segregation, which was backed up by U.S. laws and Supreme Court decisions that were unjust, Sister Carol said. “It was a very long and very painful journey to deal with that and now we have an African-American president,” she added.

CNS has even more about the bill and the controversy surrounding it.

For more, you can also check out this report on the bill that CNS filed back in November.