Harold Hill In The White House
By DEACON MIKE MANNO
As many of you will remember I live in Iowa — West Des Moines — to be exact. My house is about 130 miles south of Mason City, the boyhood home of Meredith Willson, creator of that wonderful musical, Music Man and the artful Harold Hill, er, Professor Harold Hill, music connoisseur.
Hill, of course, was a flim-flam man who, with no music experience, tried to sell the good people of River City on the idea of a city band. That was the scam, he sold the townsfolk on the idea, took orders for band instruments and uniforms, then planned to skip town before the uniforms and instruments arrived without giving the promised music lessons.
Yet he’s caught in his lie and to get out of it he performs what can only be described as an illusion, causing the townspeople to believe their kids can actually play music.
All leading to the climactic scene where Hill leads his faux band down Main Street as those watching see it as a full-dressed band playing Seventy-Six Trombones.
Now why would Harold Hill remind me of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.? I think it is their shared ability to get folks to see what is really not there. Mr. Biden and his minions have created an illusion around the president just like Harold Hill created an illusion around the townsfolk in River City that their kids could really play music and become a marching band.
The illusions created give a false impression of the man: that he is competent, a common man, and most disturbing, he is a devout Catholic. Let me take you to my starting point.
Back in May of 2019 a nurse at the University of Vermont Medical Center, identified only as “Rachel,” was forced to assist in an abortion against her religious and moral reservations. The nurse had for some time indicated her objection to the procedure and was included in the center’s list of objectors. On the day in question, the nurse was asked to assist with a medical procedure, but was not told it was an abortion. It was only when she walked into the room that she found the procedure she was to assist with was an abortion.
The doctor performing the abortion knew of her objection and greeted her with the words, “Don’t hate me.” She objected to assisting, and while there were other center personnel who could have assisted the doctor, forced her to assist under threat of termination and loss of her nursing license.
The nurse filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Trump administration. The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR), after an investigation reported, “UVMMC [the medical center] maintains a staffing policy that facially violates the Church Amendments because the policy admits to circumstances where UVMMC can and will force staff — on pain of adverse action or discipline — to participate in abortions against their moral or religious objections. The policy also violates UVMMC’s agreement, as a condition of receiving HHS funds, to comply with federal law, including the Church Amendments and HHS’s grants regulations.”
The Church Amendment, referenced above, is a federal statute that provides conscience protections for healthcare workers. Enacted in 1970 it protects medical persons from assisting or performing abortions or sterilizations if such would be against the individual’s religious beliefs or moral convictions.
The OCR also reported, “As part of its investigation, OCR contacted UVMMC repeatedly in a good faith effort to seek cooperation from UVMMC, but the hospital refused to conform its policies to federal conscience laws, provide all the documents requested by OCR, or produce witnesses for OCR interviews.”
Last year the Department of Justice filed suit against the center. It alleged that at least 10 nurses had been coerced into assisting in approximately 20 abortions against their will. It noted that some staff members were allowed to refuse assistance in some matters, and only the pro-life staffers were forced to assist with abortions. It also alleged that the center’s policy: “Refusing to provide care [based on conscience objections] will result in the employee being placed on paid leave while the incident is reviewed. The review may result in corrective action up to and including termination of employment” was, in itself, illegal.
Roger Severino, director of OCR at the time, said, “Forcing medical staff to assist in the taking of human life inflicts a moral injury on them that is not only unnecessary and wrong, it violates longstanding federal law. Our investigation has uncovered serious discrimination by UVMMC against nurses and staff who cannot, in good conscience, assist in elective abortions.”
According to the OCR suit, the hospital “discriminated against conscience objectors because of their religious beliefs or moral convictions opposing abortion.” UVMMC is said to have “forced and attempted to force or required conscience objectors to assist with abortions when such personnel object that assisting with abortions violates their religious beliefs or moral convictions.”
A clear case of the violation of religious and conscience rights.
But that is not the way the Biden administration saw it. Through Mr. Biden’s fellow pro-abortion Catholic, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, OCR’s lawsuit was “voluntarily dismissed” by the Department of Justice in July.
Of course Planned Parenthood of Vermont supported the dismissal. “The Department of Justice did the right thing by dropping this politically motivated lawsuit against UVM Medical Center. For patients, health care is personal, not political, and it is time to end government interference when it comes to abortion care,” said spokesperson Lucy Leriche.
The center’s Dr. Steve Leffler, reacting to the dismissal, said, “We are committed to meeting the medical needs of our patients, while respecting the religious and moral beliefs of our employees.”
In Congress, 84 GOP lawmakers sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary Becerra claiming that by dropping the lawsuit they had violated federal conscience protection. “Your handling of this case is a profound miscarriage of justice and a rejection of your commitment to enforce federal conscience laws for Americans of all religious beliefs and creeds — and especially for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals who object to abortion,” the letter said.
The American Center for Law and Justice issued a statement: “This week, the Biden Administration has taken the unprecedented step of having the Department of Justice voluntarily dismiss its own case without obtaining anything in return….But the Biden Administration is so beholden to its extreme ‘abortion-is-awesome!’ wing that they can’t even bring themselves to recognize that conscience rights exist when it comes to abortion.”
Rachel, so traumatized by the incident, has ended her nursing career and moved to another part of the country.
Former OCR Director Severino said of the decision to drop the case: “Such a politically motivated backstab means it’s open season on pro-life doctors and nurses.” The Biden administration tried to force him out of his office even though his three-year term was not up. When he refused to resign, he was fired.
So Joe Biden is a good Catholic. Like Harold Hill he has spun that illusion, but under the surface he is a champion of abortion and will take every opportunity to expand the killing fields — even to the point of denying the conscience rights of objectors, and supporting Democratic policies, such as contained in their beloved “Equality Act” which would alter federal civil rights laws to be replaced by the requirement that even faith-based hospitals would have to provide abortions and that schools and other institutions would be forced to allow gender-mixed locker and shower facilities.
I could go on, but if you are a regular reader of this column, you know the list by now. Sufficient to say, Mr. Biden is no friend of the Church or of conscience protection. He is the Harold Hill of today’s political arena and needs our prayers before he drops too far into the abyss.
(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday at 10 a.m. Central, on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)
