St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston. (CNS)

Late last week President Barack Obama indicated he will rescind the pro-life conscience protections for medical personnel instituted in the last days of the Bush Presidency.

Here’s something Catholics can do to fight back against this effort to erode the right of pro-life doctors, nurses and other health workers to refuse to participate in life-destroying acts and other actions that violate a properly formed conscience.

A 30-day period for public comment about Obama’s plan to rescind the Provider Conscience Clause is now underway. You can email the Department of Health and Human Services at proposedrescission@hhs.gov, and inform the Obama Administration of your total opposition to its bid to remove the conscience rights of pro-life medical providers.

You can also forward this link to as many people as possible, and urge them to email comments of opposition too.

Some will argue that even a massive showing of public opposition is unlikely to persuade Obama to back down on his plan to attack conscience rights. But there’s no reason to assume this to be the case without first trying.

And even if it does turn out that way, that’s not an excuse to keep silent on this issue or on any other key pro-life political issue. Whether or not a given battle is won, Catholics and other pro-lifers will make headway in the cause of defending life only through their active and continuous participation in America’s public square.

So let’s keep prodding Obama’s conscience — and his ambitions to get re-elected in 2012 — about this and about every other anti-life action his Administration undertakes.