c. 2008 Religion News Service

HHS Secretary says access to contraceptives not part of plan

WASHINGTON (RNS) Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt says draft proposals to protect the conscience-driven objections of health care providers do not and will not seek to curb access to contraceptives.

“An early draft of the regulations found its way into public circulation before it had reached my review,” Leavitt wrote in an HHS blog on Aug. 7. “It contained words that lead some to conclude my intent is to deal with the subject of contraceptives, somehow defining them as abortion. Not true.”

He said his department is still mulling whether to issue a new regulation, but any new rules would address protecting the conscience of health practitioners.

“… (T)he issue I asked to be addressed in this regulation is not abortion or contraceptives, but the legal right medical practitioners have to practice according to their conscience and patients should be able to choose a doctor who has beliefs like his or hers.”

The Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights has issued an “action alert” to its members, urging them to contact Leavitt and President Bush to oppose the proposal.

“The Administration disingenuously justifies this attack on critical health care services by claiming it is showing respect for individual conscience and religious freedom,” the Washington-based coalition says on its Web site. “In so doing, they impose through government mandate a single religious ideology … ”

The coalition’s Web site includes a link to a draft of the proposed regulations, which says “the conscience of the individual or institution should be paramount in determining what constitutes abortion, within the bounds of reason.” It proposes that abortion should be defined as “any of the various procedures _ including the prescription and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action _ that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”

Concerned Women for America, a conservative Christian group, has asked its members to send comments to the blog _ which has received more than 1,100 online responses _ to show support for the proposed language.

“Abortion advocates are causing a ruckus about a rule that simply requires health agencies to follow the law and not to discriminate against people with moral beliefs against taking an innocent life,” said Wendy Wright, president of the Washington-based group.

“As patients, we depend _ with our lives _ on health providers to be moral. But if ethical professionals with strong consciences are forced out of the profession, patients will suffer the most.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Police say accused pastor moved wife’s body, impregnated daughter

MOBILE, Ala. (RNS) Itinerant preacher Anthony Jujuan Hopkins killed his wife and buried her in a shallow grave, but dug her up and put her in a home freezer when her bloating body began to crack the ground, police told a judge on Wednesday (Aug. 13).

Investigators testifying in Hopkins’ preliminary hearing also stated that one of the family’s daughters _ the same daughter who turned Hopkins in _ is five months pregnant and claims Hopkins is the father. She told police that Hopkins:

_ Convinced her to have sex with him eight years ago by citing Old Testament passages.

_ Killed her mother, Arletha, by strangulation four years ago during an argument.

_ Hid the woman’s body in the woods, later moving it to church property in Clarke County. When the ground there began to crack, Hopkins made the daughter help him move her mother’s body to the freezer in the family’s home in Mobile.

As the daughter was leading police last month to her mother’s body, Hopkins was preaching a sermon in Jackson.

Approached by police there, Hopkins asked what was up, according to Wednesday’s testimony. They told him that they were there about a body being found in a freezer.

Hopkins then uttered an expletive, said Mobile police investigator Kent Quinnie.

By the time Hopkins’ preliminary hearing ended before presiding District Judge Charles McKnight, the judge announced he had heard enough to send the criminal cases to a grand jury.

Hopkins also spoke publicly for the first time since his arrest, responding in a cheerful tone when McKnight asked how he was doing. “Real well, sir,” Hopkins said.

Investigators told the judge that shortly before going to police, the daughter ran away from the home she shared with Hopkins and seven siblings.

“Don’t be telling my business,” Hopkins told his daughter, then suggested that she wanted him sexually, which caused her to want her mother dead.

_ Gary McElroy

(RNS) With summer wildfires raging across the western United States, California’s two largest Indian tribes are taking aim at Forest Service officials who they say are interfering with sacred lands.

Members of the Yurok and Kurak nations consider the afflicted high country in Six Rivers National Forest to be sacred training areas for tribal doctors and priests. Tribal representatives argue that the Forest Service is prioritizing natural resources over religious concerns.

“Our desire is for them to not fight fire in that religious area,” said Leaf Hillman, vice chairman of the Kurak tribe. “Fire is not something that we’re afraid of. Fire is a sacred entity.”

Two smaller tribes, the Hupa and Tolowa, also consider the land to hold sacred significance. Wildfires have scorched more than 100 square miles of forest since being sparked by lightning in June.

Tribal members travel to the high country to fast and pray, and to rejuvenate themselves after a ceremony. Some sites are listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of their cultural and religious significance.

Tyrone Kelley, the Forest Service’s supervisor for the afflicted area, downplayed allegations that his agency has ignored tribal concerns, stating that the agency has a “memorandum of understanding” with the local tribes. Tribal representatives have been working in consultation with the firefighting crews on the ground during fire suppression efforts, he said.

“They let us know where spiritual sights are, and how we might be able to avoid (them), or what type of tactics we might be able to use to protect those sites,” Kelley said. “We make adjustments, but of course firefighters’ safety is the top priority.“

But Bill Tripp, eco-cultural restoration specialist for the Kurak tribe, argued that tribal suggestions have fallen on deaf ears.

“There’s no assurance that anything that has to do with our consultation is going to take place on the ground,” said Tripp, who alleged that the firefighting strategy is designed to protect timber projects instead of Indian interests.

Hilmman said the Kurak are considering taking legal action to ensure future cooperation.

It’s not the first time that Western Indian tribes have clashed with the federal governments on religious grounds. Recently, the Tohono O’odham tribe, whose Arizona reservation extends into Mexico, claimed that a border fence being constructed would restrict access to important religious sites.

_ Tim Murphy

Quote of the Day: “Left Behind” co-author Tim LaHaye

(RNS) “I can see by the language he uses why people think he could be the antichrist, but from my reading of Scripture, he doesn’t meet the criteria. There is no indication in the Bible that the antichrist will be an American.”

_ “Left Behind” co-author Tim LaHaye, on whether presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama is the antichrist. He was quoted by The Boston Globe.

KRE/JM END RNS