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This message is forwarded from the Knights of Columbus, Kansas State Council Brother Knights, A joint House and Senate conference committee will soon meet to work out the differences in the House and Senate passed Healthcare Reform bills. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives are expected to vote on a final common bill sometime in January. As you most likely know the House version contained the Stupak Amendment which prohibited federal funding of abortion and protected conscience rights for those individuals and hospitals not wanting to take part in abortion procedures. The Senate version, however did not contain this language and is unacceptable in its present form. In a letter I received from our Supreme Knight Carl Anderson this week, I have been asked to "contact every Knight in your state and ask them to contact their elected representatives in both the House and the Senate." Our elected representatives may be reached by e-mail, phone calls or fax letters. Please go to the Knights of Columbus homepage at www.kofc.org for instructions on how to contact your Representative and Senators. It would also be beneficial to call or visit the local office of your Representative or Senator while they are in their home district during the Christmas recess. We are blessed in Kansas to have many Pro-Life Senators and Representatives however Kansas does have at least one representative who has views which differ from those of the Conference of Catholic Bishops. Every vote will count in this most important issue and this is why we must act now. As our Supreme Knight also said in his letter "Time is of the essence. Congress returns to Washington soon. We must prevent this health care legislation from becoming the largest expansion of abortion in our country since Roe v. Wade." For this reason I am asking all District Deputies to please make sure all your Grand Knights receive this e-mail or communication and that the Grand Knights get the word out to all members of their councils. We must do everything we can to insure this legislation does not pass without wording to prohibit federal funding of abortion and wording to protect conscience rights. Vivat Jesus Francis G. Drouhard State Deputy