Why Catholics Will Not Get Abortion Out of the Health Care Bill

Inside Catholic,cim ^ | 8/03/09 | Deal Hudson

[Salvation]

 

Why Catholics Will Not Get Abortion Out of the Health Care Bill

by Deal W. Hudson   

8/03/09

 

 

The Congress and the White House have little to fear from the bishops' official statements opposing the abortion provisions in the health care bill. Unlike with President Barack Obama's appearance at Notre Dame, there is no chorus of bishops' voices rising in protest against the bill; most of the Catholics in Congress support it, and mainstream Catholic organizations like Catholic Charities USA and the Catholic Health Association -- which some assume speak for the bishops -- have also voiced their support.

 

The overall impression given by Church leadership thus far is that universal health care coverage is so badly needed that they are not willing to endanger the legislation by protesting too loudly against abortion coverage.

 

The only notable resistance against the abortion provisions has come from a Catholic, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ); an Evangelical, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN); and 20 "blue dog" Democrats, led by Catholic Bart Stupak (D-MI), who signed a letter asking explicitly that abortion coverage be removed from the bill.

 

Two official letters from the USCCB have been sent to members of Congress. Bishop William Murphy, chairman of the USCCB's Committee on Domestic Policy, wrote on July 17 asking Congress to remove abortion coverage. And on July 26, Cardinal Justin Rigali, Chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, wrote asking them to support an amendment to exclude the abortion mandate from any health care bill.

 

President Obama continues to talk about abortion reduction (as he did with Pope Benedict XVI on his Vatican visit) at the very moment the Senate version of the bill -- which contains abortion coverage -- is being considered in committee.

 

Obama also feigns indifference to abortion coverage as part of federally mandated universal health coverage. When asked directly about abortion and the health care bill in a July 21 interview with Katie Couric, Obama said any decision about abortion coverage would be left to experts, like pro-abortion Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

 

Yet only a few days earlier, one of Obama's closet advisers assured members of Planned Parenthood that the Obama administration would not buckle to pressure and remove abortion coverage from the health care reform package. Tina Tchen, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, supported her promise by quoting from a January 22 statement from the president praising Roe v. Wade.

 

Tchen's reference to one of Obama's presidential statements is ironic: Obama complained to Catholic journalists about the pro-lifers who expect "the worst" from him, claiming there was nothing in his record as president that should be cause for such concern. He argued, "It's not based on anything I've said or done, but is rather just a perception, somehow, that we have some hard-line agenda that we're seeking to push." Tchen evidently disagrees.

 

 

Many Catholics are asking why Catholic Charities USA and the Catholic Health Association are backing a health care bill that two USCCB letters have sharply criticized for its abortion coverage. A LifeSiteNews (LSN) interview with the head of another mainstream Catholic organization supporting the present health care bill may answer the question.

 

When told by the LSN interviewer that the health care bill included an abortion mandate, Roger Playwin, the national executive director of the venerable St. Vincent de Paul Society, replied:

 

The bishops' office has advised us that that's not accurate. So I can't speak to it, because all I know is that the bishops' office has said that story is going around, but it's inaccurate. That's all I know.

 

When asked for clarification about where he got that information, Playwin clarified that it did not come from the USCCB but rather from Catholic Charities USA. In other words, Playwin somehow received a message from Catholic Charities USA that abortion coverage was not contained in the House and Senate versions of the bill -- which is simply not true, as the letters from Bishop Murphy and Cardinal Rigali attest.

 

Yet both Catholic Charities USA and the St. Vincent de Paul Society sent out legislative alerts asking for support for health care reform and did not mention the issue of abortion services.

 

So why should either Congress or the White House be afraid of Catholic criticism of the health care bills as they now stand? Yes, the USCCB has made its official statements, but there's no great roar of opposition to the prospect of federally funded abortion services as a part of universal health care.

 

As far as the public's perception is concerned, the "Catholic" imprimatur on health care reform has come from Catholic Charities USA, the Catholic Health Association, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society. (God help us if L'Osservatore Romano weighs in on this!)

 

The good news is the two-month delay in voting on the bill. Richard Doeflinger, associate director of the bishops' Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, told the National Catholic Register, "Right now, these bills are a moving target.... But we will stay on top of it and continue to educate the public."

 

Whether or not abortion services remain in the health care bill will be a definitive test of the bishops' ability to educate and to put the "fear of God" in the Congress and the White House. It is a test, I fear, they will fail.

 

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Deal W. Hudson is the director of InsideCatholic.com and the author of Onward, Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States (Simon and Schuster).

[TribalPrincess2U]

The overall impression given by Church leadership thus far is that universal health care coverage is so badly needed that they are not willing to endanger the legislation by protesting too loudly against abortion coverage.

What BS!

I could see "some" idiot doctors saying this, but this people?

It's all about getting abortion FREE!

[Condor51]

page 425 if I remember correctly.

Okay, I'll start around there is my 'search' doesn't get a hit.

For some reason my version is 1017 pages, another often quoted is 1018 pages - but its the same bill, no changes. So a page number cited could be off by one.

[Salvation]

1,017 pages was the housebill.

Here is a search link from yahoo

Both the senate and house versions are there.

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGkxNO.XlKp1kA3xKl87UF?p=healthcare+bill&fr=sfp&fr2=&iscqry=

[Salvation]

You are so right about Obama thinking he owns Catholics.

He may own the CINOS, but he doesn’t own the REAL Catholics, nor orthodox evangelicals or Protestants like yourself.

Now is the time for us to stick together.

Thanks for your input.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thank you for this list. I’m going to be out of town for a couple of days, but when I get back I’m going to go to work on the bishops. Clerical bafflegab....Too typical.

[Salvation]

I’m thinking they searched for abortion, euthanasia in the bill and those words are not used.

Instead

family planning = abortion

end of life counseling = euthanasia

Plus, I want my docotr’s opinion, not the government’s opinion about my health. Hope you are doing well.

[Frantzie]

Sorry for venting. I will always loathe Notre Dame for what they did. I also despise Kennedy/Obama catholics. The morons who voted for him could care less about babies including babies murdered after they were born.

Now O wants to kill granny and grandpa. I hope the fake catholics who voted for this evil man spend eternity in purgatory.

I guess I need to work on that “forgiveness” thing. ;-)

[Semperfiwife]

Page 770 Section 1714 of the House bill: Goverment mandates State family planning services
Page 769 Nurse Home Visit Services - “to increase birth intervals between pregnancies”

[Mrs. Don-o]

It's all about the amendments. Click on this link:

"The Capps provision goes on to require taxpayer subsidies to flow to plans that include abortion, and mandate that every U.S. region have at least one abortion-covering private insurance plan."

So that's it: quite direct and explicit.

A closely related (but not identical) issue is that tax monies flow to organizations like Planned Parenthood whose funds are fungible.

This is an illustration of how it works.

--- in other words, the $350 million they got last year in tax funding wasn't designated to be "for abortion," ---BUT--- it just so happens that PP is the nation's #1 abortion provider, the big-box store of abortion, and funds pumped into PP for staff salaries, the building and maintenance of facilities, etc. etc. frees up hundreds of millions in the budget to be used for abortions.

It's just a question of moving the numbers from one column to another.

[RobbyS]

About a hundred bishops really think that abortion on demand is an absolute horror, but the majority are luke warm. The pope gave them cover by greeting Obama warmly and giving him a book to read!

[lastchance]

The Catholic Medical Association has also expressed their displeasure with the bill. I am not familiar with the difference between them and the Catholic Health Association, maybe someone can advise me.

[lastchance]

Here is a link to the Catholic Medical Association’s statement.

http://www.cathmed.org/issues_resources/publications/press_releases/statement_on_health_care_reform/

Just a quick glance at CHA’s site leads me to believe they are Catholic as defined by Catholic Charities, the LCWR and other liberal Catholic organizations. I won’t see they are in rebellion against the magesterium but I do believe they are more likely to push for the use of government (read taxpayer) money to achieve their goals.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

/mark

[mimaw]

The majority of Bishops in this country care more about social justice and staying on Obama’s side than they do the sanctity of life. The Pope can issue all the papers he wants but if he doesn't direct his clergy in this country to start singing out of the same book the Catholic Church in this country will be little more than a social service organization. I'm sickened by it all.

[ardara]

A key falacy in the whole health care discussion is that there are NOT 47 million Americans that can’t get health care.Sally Pipes wrote”THE tOP 10 Myths of American Health Care”,which is quoted in David Limbaugh’s column.Sally says 18million of the uninsured make over $50,00- per year.As many as 14million of the uninsured are NOW eligible for Medicare, Medicaid and theSCHIP programs.Sally concludes that there are about 8 million chronically uninsured.Not the kind of number that justifies taxpayer support of ABORTION and EUTHANASIA.

[ardara]

By the way it now becomes clearer why Catholic Charities supports a health care bill that includes Abortion and EUTHANASIA.The Catholic News Service just announced today that Catholic Charities Landed a $100million Contract with the Federal Government.

[pray4liberty]

Obama and crew don’t care about God. Why would they care about His Church??

[Salvation]

Download from Oregon Right to Life:

HR 3200 - Expanding Abortion and Paying for it with Your Tax Dollars 

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Since the creation of HR 3200, President Obama’s health care plan, pro-life organizations have said HR 3200 will allow for a massive expansion in taxpayer funded abortions. This is now a documented reality.  Last week, an amendment from Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA) was adopted. It clearly allows elective abortion coverage to be part of the “public option plan”. The amendment also allows federally subsidized private plans to provide elective abortion coverage. Since the federal funds for this bill do not pass through the appropriations covered by the Hyde amendment or other bans on direct federal funding of abortion, the bans do not apply. Therefore, under HR 3200 federal dollars can be – and will be – appropriated to fund abortions. 

To quote the Associated Press, “A law called the Hyde amendment applies the [federal funding] restrictions to Medicaid, forcing states that cover abortion for low-income women to do so with their own money. Separate laws apply the restrictions to the federal employee health plan and military and other programs. But the health overhaul would create a stream of federal funding not covered by the restrictions.”

Doug Johnson with National Right to Life Committee says that this amendment will result in taxpayer funding of elective abortions. "It's a bookkeeping scheme” said Johnson, “The [private] plan pays for abortion, and the government subsidizes the plan."

In a written statement, Congressman Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) said, "The amendment would still allow for taxpayer funding to pay for plans that cover abortion. This is a fig leaf, designed to lure votes from Members who want cover on the issue. The American people will not be fooled. We want an explicit exclusion in the bill to prevent any taxpayer funding from paying for abortions. Anything else is wrong, and contrary to overwhelming popular opinion.”

Read More:

-Gov’t Insurance Would Allow Coverage for Abortion

-Does House Healthcare Bill Fund Abortion?

-Waxman Strong-arms Vote to Allow Abortion Coverage in Public Plan

 

HR 3200 - It Depends on One's Definition of "End of Life Care"  st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }

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Section 1233 of HR 3200 is the brainchild of Oregon’s own Earl Blumenauer. It establishes “Advance Care Planning Consultations” for Medicare patients. Contrary to some reports, these consultations are not currently mandatory, but they still merit caution. These Advance Care Planning Consultations can take place at least every five years and are between a patient and practitioner. The goal of the consultation is to establish advance care planning on, “advance directives, including living wills and durable powers of attorney, and their uses…palliative care and hospice.” The practitioner is also directed to provide, “a list of nation and State-specific resources to assist consumers and their families with advance care planning…”

The inclusion of “State-specific resources” is especially concerning in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal and currently treated as palliative care by the Oregon Health Plan.

Section 1233 also establishes training on, “the goals and use of orders for life sustaining treatments” to all health care workers.

To quote Wesley J. Smith, Senior Fellow in Human Rights and Bioethics at the Discovery Institute, associate director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, and a special consultant for the Center for Bioethics and Culture,

End of life counseling could easily be subtly or overtly outcome directed, as studies have shown often happens with genetic counseling of pregnant women testing positive for a Down fetus. Thus, there is much about which to be concerned when Medicare pays practioners to engage in counseling about end of life, and indeed, authorizes part of the counseling to consist of referrals to outside organizations that might have ideological agendas (such as Compassion and Choices [formally known as the Hemlock Society]). That is why, if the counseling provision remains in the bill, I believe protections against such abuse should be added.  

 

[pray4liberty]

Since the creation of HR 3200, President Obama’s health care plan, pro-life organizations have said HR 3200 will allow for a massive expansion in taxpayer funded abortions.

May Almighty God strike every pro-choice man and woman barren as a desert for this.

No conceptions, no abortions.

They mock Our God at their peril.

[Salvation]

Catholic Charities got a grant from the government?

For what?

I know they helped a lot down in Louisianna with Katrina. Is it for diaster relief?

Inquiring minds want to know. Hahaha!