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Catholic Bishops Warn House on Health-Reform Bill
By Jacqueline L. Salmon
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has weighed in on the health-care reform package moving through the House, and it doesn't like all that it sees. It says that HR 3200 could be used to mandate abortion coverage in private health plans, expand abortion funding and override state laws that limit or regulate abortion.
Conservative evangelical Christian groups have been warning for weeks that health-care reform could be used to expand abortion rights. Now the politically powerful bishops are joining in the battle.
In a letter to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, (currently working on the bill), Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, detailed several abortion-related objections to the bill.
Under the bill, the bishops' letter says, some federal funds would not be covered by the Hyde Amendment, which have prevented direct federal funding of abortion for three decades. The bishops also contend that some provisions could be used by courts to invalidate state laws restricting abortion, such as parental-notification laws. The bishops also warn that the legislation must maintain federal protection for conscience rights, which has long protected Catholic health-care workers who decline to provide abortion services.
By
Jacqueline L. Salmon
|
July 30, 2009; 7:29 PM ET
| Category:
God in Government
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Posted by: HumanSimpleton | August 2, 2009 5:16 PM
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"Now the politically powerful bishops are joining in the battle."
As in "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?":
If the bishops are so powerful, why do they have so few accomplishments?
And didn't Jesus dislike human power? After all it was the Jewish "bishops" who did Him in.
Posted by: norriehoyt | July 31, 2009 3:26 PM
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Let's see the litmus test applied to the following two scenarios:
1. I am a gynecologist and a surgeon. It is against my religious beliefs to condone abortion. Accordingly I should be allowed to refuse to perform an abortion even when the life of the mother is in danger in addition to that of her fetus.
2. I am a ER physician. It is against my religious belief to condone alcohol consumption. Accordingly I should be allowed to refuse to perform life-saving procedures on a drunk man who was hit by a mother on way to pick up her daughter from school