The U.S. bishops are sponsoring a massive postcard campaign to persuade Congress to retain pro-life policies and to oppose the funding and promotion of abortion.

Information about the campaign can be found by visiting www.usccb.org/prolife.

The postcard campaign has actually been underway for some time, and Tom Hoopes noted its existence at the end of this Daily Blog entry last month.

The bishops’ conference provided details about the campaign in a press release it issued on Friday.

According to the press release, the campaign is being coordinated through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ partner organization, the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment (NCHLA). The majority of Catholic dioceses in America are participating in the campaign, and tens of millions of postcards have already been distributed to parishes, schools, non-Catholic churches and civic organizations around the nation.

It should be noted that the postcards are worded as coming from constituents, not from voters. This allows those who are not of voting age, such as teens who are active in supporting the pro-life cause, to make their voices heard too.

The postcard campaign is intended partly to alert legislators of the depth of opposition to any effort by Congress to pass the abortion lobby’s Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). If passed and signed into law, FOCA would remove all federal, state and local restrictions on abortion.

But the campaign is also designed to fight against any effort to enact the same sweeping pro-abortion agenda through a number of individual legislative actions by Congress.

“While FOCA would accomplish the abortion promotion agenda all at once, other bills could realize the same agenda in a piecemeal fashion,” said Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for policy and communications at the USCCB’s Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities. “For example, widely supported pro-life measures in appropriations bills are already at risk, including the longstanding Hyde amendment, which has prohibited the use of taxpayer funds for most abortions, and the Hyde/Weldon amendment preventing government discrimination against health care providers who do not perform or refer for abortions.”

“To guard against the erosion of current pro-life measures — and to keep abortion from becoming a federal entitlement — our voice is needed now more than ever,” McQuade said. “The massive campaign underway shows clearly that, regardless of how they voted, Catholics want to send a strong message to Congress to protect existing pro-life policies and to oppose the radical promotion of abortion. As cards start flooding in, the new Congress will see that they should not divide our nation with policies that offend the pro-life values of the majority of Americans.”