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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 13, 2011
DAY 6: IS REP. HOCHUL TURNING HER BACK ON NY CATHOLICS?
Hochul still silent on local Catholic Republicans’ challenge
(BATAVIA, NY) – Conservative Republican David Bellavia today challenged Rep. Kathy Hochul again to stand up against the anti-religious liberty tenets of ObamaCare on behalf of the Catholics in her Western New York district.
“President Barack Obama stood up before the nation on Friday in defiance of the religious liberty our Founders wrote into the United States Constitution,” Bellavia said. “Does Rep. Kathy Hochul support ObamaCare’s coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions?”
“President Obama didn’t shown any respect for religious liberty in his so-called ‘accommodation’ last week. Obamacare still includes a nationwide mandate for insurance coverage of sterilization, contraception, and abortifacients – a mandate Catholic organizations must pay for with Catholic funds,” Bellavia said. “As Catholic Church leaders noted, the only complete solution to this violation of religious liberty is for the Department of Health and Human Services
to rescind the contraception mandates of ObamaCare.”
“I first challenged Rep. Hochul February 8th on WGRZ-TV’s “2Sides” to be honest with the Catholic constituents of the 26th Congressional District,” Bellavia said. “Leading Catholics in the Erie County Republican Party also called for her to stand up for Catholics, or at least tell us where she stands. Six days later, we’ve not heard a peep out of her.”
“I agree with Dennis Vacco, Nancy Naples and Emilio Colaiacovo: Rep. Hochul’s silence indicates that she stands with Nancy Pelosi, who favors abortion on demand and other policies that violate the conscience of Catholics across the country,” Bellavia said. “Give us a straight answer, Rep. Hochul: do you support ObamaCare mandates on Catholic organizations, or are you for religious liberty?”
ABOUT DAVID BELLAVIA
David Bellavia is the founder of Vets for Freedom, a group which helped elect eleven Republican veterans to Congress, and the Warrior Legacy Foundation, a soldiers charity. A former US Army Staff Sergeant who served in the 1st Infantry Division, he was recommended for the Medal of Honor, nominated for the Distinguished Service Cross, and received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and the Conspicuous Service Cross. In 2004, Bellavia was the subject of a Time Magazine cover story titled “Into the Hot Zone” which won a Pulitzer Prize. The author of the best selling book “House to House,” a 2007 account of his experience leading a platoon in the Battle of Fallujah, he is currently working on his second book.
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