Posted on 12/09/2009 1:21:23 PM PST by NYer
By a 54-45 vote, the United States Senate has rejected the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment to health care legislation. The amendment would have kept in place “the longstanding and widely supported federal policy against government funding of health coverage that includes elective abortions,” as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops stated before the vote.
With the failure of the amendment, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, who chairs the US bishops' pro-life committee, said: "The Senate should not approve this bill in its current form." However leaders of the US bishops' conference held out some hope that the bill might still be amended to satisfy pro-life demands. Cardinal Francis George, the president of the episcopal conference, said "we remain hopeful that the protections overwhelmingly passed by the House will be incorporated into needed reform legislation." The cardinal added: "Failure to exclude abortion funding will turn allies into adversaries and require us and others to oppose this bill because it abandons both principle and precedent."
Earlier Cardinal DiNardo-- along with Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, and Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City-- who respectively chair the bishops’ committees on domestic justice, pro-life activities, and migration-- noted:
The bill currently before the Senate allows the HHS Secretary to mandate abortion coverage throughout the government-run “community health insurance option.” It also provides funding for other plans that cover unlimited abortions, and creates an unprecedented mandatory “abortion surcharge” in such plans that will require pro-life purchasers to pay directly and explicitly for other people’s abortions. The bill does not maintain essential nondiscrimination protections for providers who decline involvement in abortion.
The pro-life amendment fell on a 54-45 vote. All but two Republican senators voted in favor of the amendment; the exceptions were Senators Snowe and Collins of Maine. All but 7 Democrats voted against the amendment; the exceptions were Senators Nelson of Nebraska, Casey of Pennsylvania, Bayh of Indiana, Conrad and Dorgan of North Dakota, Kaufman of Delaware, and Pryor of Arkansas.
A bare Senate majority of 51 votes is required for passage of the health-care reform bill. (Actually 50 votes would suffice, because Vice President Biden would case a tie-breaking vote in favor.) So the 54 votes against the pro-life language suggested that sponsors might have enough support to ensure ultimate passage of the legislation. However, several Democratic senators have indicated that they may not support the bill in a final vote, for a variety of reasons. Also, 60 votes are necessary to close debate on the proposal, and the 54-vote margin leaves Democratic leaders well short of that goal.
Ping!
Do the bishops have a position on rationing?
Do the bishops have a position on theft-by-ballot-box?
The bishops disgust me. What you are seeing here is the wailing of some Dem bishops, who are Dems first and Catholics when they get around to it or think it will be useful, because they no longer have cover.
The reason the USCCB staked the whole thing on abortion is that they thought this would be pretty non-controversial and that it would allow the Dem-first bishops (most of whom are actually senior bishops in charge of the USCCB) to oppose it on paper while knowing that they would actually have no effect and the thing would go ahead.
There are many more comprehensive reasons for opposing the whole concept, and various individual bishops have already stated them. But the USCCB is basically a CYA committee for the heterodox.
The day the abortion funding prohibition masure was defeated was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, wasn’t it? That ought to catch the eye of a lot of practicing Catholics. Whew.
At this point the laity must proceed to fight abortion in spite of the bishops.Since 1973 most of the bishops never were really on board in the fight against abortion.The bishops would like us to put our trust in the most pro-abortion President in the history of the U.S. Many of the older bishops seem more loyal to the Democratic Party than the beliefs of the Catholic Church.
With pro-life amendment's defeat, US bishops urgently call for changes in Senate health bill
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List: *41* Bishops against Obamacare (and counting!)
Bishop Murphy Issues Video Statement on Health Care Reform [Diocese of Rockville Centre]
Health Care Principles [Bishop Samuel Aquila, Fargo, ND]
Florida Bishop [Thomas Wenski] Weighs in on Health Care Reform
ObamaCare and Catholic social teaching [Bishop Neckless]
Some Catholic bishops question gov't health care
Boston’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Says He Confronted Obama about Abortion in Health Care Plan....
Iowa Bishop: Don’t Be Railroaded into the Current...Health Care Proposals
in a message issued by the Diocese of Sioux City (The Church on Universal Healthcare)
Nazi Health Care A Catholic Bishop Speaks Out Against "End of Life Care" (Germany, 1941)
Bishop Nickless: "No Health Care Reform is Better than the Wrong Health Care Reform"
Cardinal Rigali, Abp. Chaput Intensify Warnings Against Obamacare's Abortion Expansion
Pro-Life bump
The Immaculate Conception is the Patroness of the U. S. Pray for our nation.
Have you ever visited the national cathedral and shrine back east?
It’s unbelievable!! The bishops “hold out hope” that the “pro-life concerns” could STILL BE ADDRESSED!!! Who is advising the USCCB??? It’s criminal!!! Don’t the bishops get the picture that this bill is about control and losing human freedom????
No doubt there were some but my guess is that most did not even notice.
Question for Salvation, who knows these things ;-)
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is still a day of Holy Obligation in the Eastern Catholic Churches. Is this also true in the Latin Church?
**The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is still a day of Holy Obligation in the Eastern Catholic Churches. Is this also true in the Latin Church?**
Absolutely. I had it on the Daily Readings thread in big letters — maybe about 10 posts down.
bishops served their purpose. obama doesn’t need them anymore.
How was the turnout at your parish?
Mine in the Harrisburg Diocese was the same yesterday at the 3 Masses we had as on a Sunday. We don’t have a large Parish
Hi, NYer!
Just trying to find a place to post something Christmas.
http://blessedistruth.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/and-his-name-shall-be-called/
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