When Catholic bishops control health care for all of us

No one's holding a gun to the heads of Congressmen and senators to make them cast their votes a certain way.

Posted by: Climacus |
---------------------
Oh yes, they are.

Christopher Hitchens said it best: Religion poisons everything.

Enough said.

Catholics Support Healthcare Reform, Including Coverage for Abortion

According to a new poll of Catholic voters carried out by Belden Russonello and Stewart for Catholics for Choice, Catholics support both a public option in healthcare reform and a plan that would include funding for abortion. The results show that the views of Catholics have been seriously misrepresented by the US bishops and by conservative Catholics in the debate over healthcare reform. A large majority of those polled, 84 percent, attend church regularly, from several times a week to a few times a year.

While Catholic voters are split on President Obama’s ideas for healthcare reform, they do want to see costs lowered and overwhelmingly support a government plan that would make health insurance available to the uninsured.

Large majorities of Catholic voters support health insurance coverage for abortions—either in a private or a government-run scheme:
when a pregnancy poses a threat to the life of a woman (84 percent)
when a pregnancy is due to rape or incest (76 percent)
when a pregnancy poses long-term health risks for the woman (73 percent)
when test results show a fetus has a severe abnormal condition (66 percent)

Opinion is split on whether insurance plans should cover abortion whenever a woman and her doctor decide it is appropriate (50 percent support and 50 percent oppose).

Catholic voters believe the US Catholic bishops are wrong on healthcare reform. Sixty-eight percent disapprove of US bishops saying that all Catholics should oppose the entire healthcare reform plan if it includes coverage for abortion and 56 percent think the bishops should not take a position on healthcare reform legislation in Congress.

Compchiro wrote:

"He is not saying that they do nto have a right ot thier opinions. He is saying that they do not have a right to impose their purely religiously based opinions on the rest of society that do not share their religion."

Let's leave aside the fact that the bishops' opinions on public policy are not necessarily "purely religiously based". The bigger point is that the bishops aren't imposing on anyone. No one's holding a gun to the heads of Congressmen and senators to make them cast their votes a certain way.

itisivan,

"So everyone in the U.S. BUT Catholic bishops are allowed to participate in the democratic process? Only Catholic Bishops are not allowed an opinion?"

Silverman wrote: "But bishops have no right to impose their sectarian beliefs on the rest of us."

He is not saying that they do nto have a right ot thier opinions. He is saying that they do not have a right to impose their purely religiously based opinions on the rest of society that do not share their religion.

Silverman also states: " This is not to condemn those from either the left or the right whose faith motivates them to enter the political arena or engage in political issues. However, whatever the motivation, Congress needs to make sure their policies are backed for good secular reasons."

Again he is not denying them the right to their OPINION. But he is correct that they have threatened to scuttle all of helathcare reform over this one issue. They do not have that right.

The main point that he is making is that religious authority has no standing in US law. I do not recognize the Catholicism's or any religious groups' authority over me.

Let the bishops exert all the influence they want into secular life. In the case of abortion/health care questions, they are way behind the curve and their current efforts will only further alienate the more balanced members of their holy club.

So everyone in the U.S. BUT Catholic bishops are allowed to participate in the democratic process? Only Catholic Bishops are not allowed an opinion?

That, Mr. Silverman, and all other narrow minded commenters, is discrimination.

The self-proclaimed “pro-life” crowd is entirely too obsessive about the imaginary people they claim to be concerned about. They need to calm down, switch off their circuit diagrams, get out of their blueprints, sit in the shade of their acorns, listen to the pleasant songs of the eggs, and stop to smell the pollen.

Herb Silverman writes:

Perhaps some Catholic bishops should ask themselves, "What would Jesus do?"
-----------------------------
What Catholic bishops ask themselves is relevant only to Catholic bishops. The Holy Roman Empire exists no longer. What we are witnessing, worldwide, is an attempt to "resurrect" it.

Enough is quite enough. If female RCC camp followers wish to carry to term fetuses that will become children with half a brain missing, children that will require care forever, that is fine with me so long as these women make these decisions of their own free will and are financially prepared to pay all for the care of their offspring.

As for the rest of us, keep off and keep out. Get your Roman fingers out of my womb.
SLAVERY IS NO MORE in the United STates.

THe RCC organized wealthy Irish American Catholics to launch a campaign in Ireland to make sure that abortion would never be legal there. As a result, Irish doctors can provide to patients no information regarding abortion clinics anywhere in the UK. Magazines, newspapers, etc., are censored so that adds from UK abortion clinics do not appear. Women leave notes in public places, write on trees to tell one another where to get help. IN 2009.

The RCC benefits from nonprofit status also provide them with protection from audits. They are permitted to lobby Congress, which they do with the money we give them. MOreover, they spend money campaigning everywhere against birth control, and THEY ARE CURRENTLY LOBBYING FULL-SPEED AHEAD AT THE UNITED NATIONS.

CONTINUED:
If they have so much revenue to spend on lobbying, can pull together millions to stop women from having abortions in Ireland, they do not need to be on the dole.

MOreover, their "need" is no longer the issue. The provisions allowing their tax exempt status allows lobbying so it does not interfere with the church's primary mission. Lobbying the Congress, the UN, raising millions to oppress women in the United STates, Ireland, and elsewhere, to make sure that more children are born in starving nations, many HIV positive in starving nations, tells us that they have lost sight of their primary purpose, if in fact they ever had it in view.

What to do:

1. SEPARATE church and state. Pass legislation prohibiting lobbying by religious institutions.

2. END tax exemptions for religious institutions. Give them one year to identify other funding sources to replace any losses they might incur.

3. OPERATE NGO style agencies to provide social services and contract with them, not the church.

Who can say it better than Dr. Herb Silverman?

Yes, Catholic bishops have a duty to express their "moral concerns." Our policy makers would do well, however, to understand that the bishops' moral concerns are an expression of a primarily Catholic concern and do not necessarily represent the concern of many non-Catholics. In fact for many Americans, both secular and religous, denying access to abortion is an even greater "moral concern."

And the biggest pedophile ring in the world tells us how to run our sex lives. That's rich.

Since bishops don't have children (at least most of them don't)it seems only right and christian for them to agree to house, feed, clothe and educate each of the children that will born to mothers who didn't feel as though they should bear a child under whatever their particular circumstances. Only then will I consider the bishops to be serious people.

I feel very strongly that the Catholic church, and any other church, has no right to dictate the tenets of their faith to others. I agree with providing health care to the needy. However, when it comes to what type of health care is allowed, they need to step away. The Catholic church is against abortion. They're also against birth control. Does that mean they'd also attempt to disallow coverage of this as well? I believe that would be the next step. They also oppose other reproductive choices, such as tubal ligation. Would they also prevent those types of health care for women? Probably. Their attempts to dictate abortion services is only a toe in the door of what should be very private decisions by women & their doctors for all reproductive choices.

Whenever I think about having a dialogue on a subject such as abortion, and I think about what assumptions are brought to the discussion by most theologians (whether Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Mormon, Muslim,etc., etc.), I feel discouraged, to say the least.

What can I possibly say that stands any chance of being heard by someone who (1) know that there is a God, (2) knows what God says, (3) knows what God wants of us, and (4) believes that this gives them the authority to tell the rest of us what we should, or shouldn't, do?

Separation of Church and State = The State does not favor or promote one religious belief over any (or none). This one is such a no-brainer to me. I really hope this issue does not impede the health care reform which is needed by every American.