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Home » Social Concerns Department

Social Concerns Department

The PCC Social Concerns Department monitors pro-life, social justice, and family-life issues and helps diocesan Catholic Charities agencies by monitoring legislation and regulations that affect them and the services they offer. It advocates on behalf of low-income and other needy population groups. The department expects to track these and other issues in the 2009-2010 legislative session:
  • Oppose attempts to weaken Pennsylvania’s Abortion Control Act
  • Support positive pro-life initiatives intended to provide additional protections for unborn children
  • Continue to oppose embryonic stem cell research while advocating in support of using adult stem cells for treatment purposes
  • Support state/federal funding for Real Alternatives, Inc.
  • Support appropriate capital punishment legislation
  • Support a moratorium on the death penalty in Pennsylvania
  • Oppose efforts to weaken or eliminate access to confidential birth records in adoption proceedings
  • Monitor legislation and regulations governing adoption services
  • Monitor legislation, regulations and policies affecting Catholic social service agencies
  • Continue to review and support as needed legislation intended to help low-income Pennsylvanians, those in need, and the disabled
  • Support an amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution banning same-sex marriage and functionally equivalent relationships
  • Review legislation providing protections under law based upon one’s sexual orientation
  • Continue to work with the statewide Welfare Coalition
  • Review legislation dealing with immigration reform
  • Oppose attempts to weaken Pennsylvania’s Seasonal Farm Labor Act (ACT 93-1978)
  • Continue to support the Homeowner’s Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP)
  • Support state funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
  • Work with others in support of increasing federal funding for programs that assist victims of violence and their families
  • Monitor threats to the exercise of religious liberty in our Commonwealth
  • Support efforts to strengthen Pennsylvania’s existing laws regulating obscenity
  • Review criminal justice issues as needed

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