Celebrate the Sanctity of Life!
Posted on 01/12/2010 9:44:46 PM PST by Salvation
Mandated Abortion Coverage Threatens Health Care Reform,
U.S. Bishops Official Says
Washington D.C., Aug 8, 2009 (CNA).- Tom Grenchik, director of the U.S. bishops’ Pro-Life Secretariat, has said that mandated abortion health care coverage and funding is “a line we can never cross,” charging that some U.S. leaders are threatening health care reform by forcing Americans to accept such mandates in proposed reform bills.
Writing in a Friday column on the U.S. bishops’ web site, Grenchik said that health care proposals need to be examined during the congressional recess to see how well they provide affordable quality health care and how they impact immigrants and the poor.
“But one thing is certain,” he emphasized. “The bills approved so far by House and Senate committees include mandated abortion coverage and abortion funding, and that is a line we can never cross.”
He also noted that amendments to exclude abortion from health care legislation have been defeated.
Reporting that abortion was not specifically mentioned in draft health care bills until recently, he recalled that Medicaid also did not mention abortion but nonetheless funded 300,000 abortions per year in the 1970s until the Hyde Amendment forbade such funding.
Grenchik quoted Bishop of Rockville Centre William Murphy’s July 17 comments to Congress, in which the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Rights said the bishops looked forward to working with congressional leaders to reform health care “in a manner that offers accessible, affordable and quality health care that protects and respects the life and dignity of all people from conception until natural death.”
Bishop Murphy added: “no health care reform plan should compel us or others to pay for the destruction of human life, whether through government funding or mandatory coverage of abortion.”
Cardinal Justin Rigali, Chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, in a July 29 letter to the U.S. House’s Energy and Commerce Committee, declared that “much-needed reform must not become a vehicle for promoting an ‘abortion rights’ agenda” or for reversing “longstanding” policies against federal abortion mandates.
Grenchik also highlighted a postcard campaign in which millions of American Catholics sent postcards asking Congress to “retain laws against federal funding and promotion of abortion.” He said that Congressmen need to be reminded of this message “at the local level.”
“Support genuine health care reform that respects the life and dignity of all,” he urged. “A fair and just health care reform bill must exclude mandated coverage for abortion, and uphold longstanding laws that restrict abortion funding and protect conscience rights.”
“Now is the time to take action,” Grenchik said, urging congressional members be contacted through e-mail, phone or fax. He also encouraged pro-lifers to attend local town hall meetings.
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I sure hope they are right.
Personally, I’d prefer that the church not be involved in any of this health care nonsense ~ it lends credibility to something that is unconstitutional.
That being said, they better NOT let themselves be used to provide cover for the Democrats.
“Contact your Senators and Representatives!”
Yes, and if we don’t call them, they will think we just accept it, so we need to keep the pressure on!
**Yes, and if we don’t call them, they will think we just accept it, so we need to keep the pressure on!**
You are right on to the task, Sun! Thanks.
Backfire: Out of a 1984 UN population conference in Mexico City grew a U.S. policy limiting the work of abortion advocates that receive federal funds. That policy ended with the start of the Obama administration, but a new "Mexico City policy" may be taking its place. One year after Mexico's Supreme Court upheld a Mexico City law allowing abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy—a decision abortion advocates expected to bring greater access to abortion across Mexico—the opposite has happened. In 17 states, pro-life groups have won changes to local constitutions declaring that life begins at conception and explicitly granting legal rights to the unborn. When Veracruz last month became the most recent state to do so, it also called on the Mexican Congress to consider a similar amendment to the national constitution.
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