Posted on 08/19/2009 4:02:40 PM PDT by wagglebee
August 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, has penned a scathing editorial, published today in the Huffington Post, in which she sets her sights on the U.S. Catholic bishops, slamming them for their opposition to the abortion mandate in the Obama health care bill, and to abortion in general.
"Does anyone else see the irony in the U.S. bishops wanting to define universal health care as covering everything except for what they don't support?" writes Richards. "Since when does universal health care mean denying comprehensive reproductive health care supported by the majority of Americans?"
Richards then goes on to accuse the bishops of endangering "millions" of women's lives around the globe with their "hard-line opposition to women's rights." "The effort to criminalize access to safe abortion endangers most women in the developing world -- the very women that you would think the bishops would be concerned about," says Richards.
The U.S. bishops, while expressing support for healthcare reform in general, have been adamant in their stance that healthcare reform must not include mandated abortion coverage - something that the current legislation would do if passed.
In an August 11 letter Cardinal Justin Rigali, Chairman of United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities, carefully but forcefully countered claims, propagated by proponents of Obama's healthcare reform, including Planned Parenthood and Cecile Richards, that the Obama plan wouldn't mandate abortion coverage and lead to taxpayer funding for abortions.
Any claim that taxpayer money would not be used to fund abortion is "an illusion," said Rigali in that letter. "Government will force low-income Americans to subsidize abortions for others (and abortion coverage for themselves) even if they find abortion morally abhorrent."
Numerous other prominent bishops, including Archbishop Charles Chaput, Bishop Robert Vasa, and Bishop R. Walter Nickless have also spoken strongly against the abortion provisions in the healthcare bill.
The intense campaign to publicize the abortion mandate in the healthcare bill, not only by the U.S. bishops, but by a huge alliance of pro-life and pro-family organizations, appears to have been successful, with a majority of Americans in a recent poll saying that they believe the Obama reform would include taxpayer funding for abortion.
However, with the majority of Americans calling themselves pro-life, any taxpayer funding for abortion is likely to be extremely unpopular and contribute to the swelling opposition to the Obama plan.
When pro-life concerns about the abortion mandate in the healthcare bill first began to be expressed, pro-abortion groups and legislators responded by simply denying that the legislation would mandate abortion coverage. Cecile Richards was amongst these, saying at the beginning of this month that the abortion mandate is a "myth."
"Nothing in any of the current health care reform bills mandates abortion coverage -- or any other type of health care service -- in the Exchange," Richards insisted in a column for the Huffington Post early in August. "Opponents of women's health and health care reform are exploiting this legislation as a way to push for unprecedented prohibitions on abortion coverage in the private marketplace."
In her most recent article, however, the Planned Parenthood head was more candid about her views on the healthcare plan, saying that it should include "comprehensive reproductive health," a term that for Planned Parenthood includes abortion and contraception.
"We have an opportunity this year to fundamentally address serious health care issues for women and young people in America," says Richards, "and we stand ready to partner with President Obama and Congress to find solutions to our most pressing health care issues."
"We call upon Congress and the White House to continue to stand firmly on the side of women in health care reform. Women are needed to pass health care reform -- and we are not going backwards and we are not going away."
Start with a lie and you've lost me.
The Catholics should shut down this reform even if it only includes contraception coverage paid for by the taxpayer.
Nope, because moderate Protestants tend to vote the same way as the CINOs.
Last year Zero also got a lot of votes from Blacks and young people who generally wouldn't have voted. The WILL NOT vote in the next election if Zero fails to advance socialism like he promised.
Well Obama of course didn’t win the Protestant vote getting only 45% of their vote, but Obama did win 54% of the Catholic vote.
The question is, will Obama risk losing the support of Catholics?
The numbers I’ve seen indicate that the Catholic vote and white Protestant vote seem to move in the same direction (with the Protestants usually about 8 to 10 points more in favor of the GOP). I also think it’s pretty safe to say that the era of it mattering if the candidate is Catholic has long since passed (i.e. I don’t think any sizable number of non-Catholics would refuse to vote for a Catholic and John Kerry showed that Catholics are not willing to vote for someone just because they are Catholic).
I don’t think Zero is actually bright enough to realize how many people he is alienating.
If things continue like they are now, the ‘Rats will lose Congress next year. When that happens, look for Hillary to resign by the end of 2010 (depending on how badly Zero does she may leave sooner) and challenge Zero for the nomination.
Murder Inc. aka planned parenthood is going after those of us who are pro life.
The white protestant vote is always the same old GOP vote,so I don’t know what direction they could be moving in.
The Catholic vote has gone republican 5 out of the last 19 elections and 4 of those times have been in the last 13 elections so that might be a trend.
You are right about Kerry, Gore got the Catholic vote but when it came to reelecting a war time president the Catholics gave Bush 52% of their vote.
I do think though that Obama has to fear losing a group that in recent years has become a swing vote that might abandon him in 1210, that gives Catholic Bishops a lot of power.
Oh, since approximately 3000 BC to 1974 AD.... a mere 4,974 years.
Most Leftwingtards are too stupid to resist sterilization. Just line them up and break out the Burdizzos
clearly the ingestion of organic estrogen is affecting her brain.
Seems like Pharaoh could have saved himself a lot of trouble with Moses and his lot if he’d only used the phrase “comprehensive reproductive health care” instead of “kill all male Hebrews.” Judging by modern sentiments, Hebrew women would have been rushing to throw their newborns in the Nile in that case.
How do you say “comprehensive reproductive health care” in ancient Egyptian?
This ignorant, arrogant evil-doer needs to start calling it what it is: "comprehensive reductive death indifference".
I wonder if Obama can risk losing the Catholic vote?...
...he doesn’t have to worry, the 53% Catholics who voted for him are hard core ideologues who would buck the church in a second in order to pursue left wing visions...their premise is that it’s uninformed to be single issue voters...
I don’t believe that, I think that if Americans that are Catholic start pushing for the church in America to become more conservative that it will move enough moderate Catholics so that the Catholic vote could be brought closer to the Protestant vote.
Protestants Hispanics are about 50/50 republican having voted 56% for Bush in 2004 and 52% Obama in 2008, Catholic Hispanics voted 79% for Obama, and 79% for Kerry. American Catholics can look into those two camps and find a pathway to converting their fellow Catholics to voting against the Gay/abortion party that they are currently supporting.
The main thing that they need to do is start looking behind the Catholic curtain and figure out why nothing changes.
The Pope is up to it, but the US Catholic Bishops aren’t, in my opinion. They sure did there level best to screw up Providence Seattle. In the end, the abandoned the market. They moved their flagship to Everett. Top ten heart hospital in the US.
Let Obama nationalize them. Then the Church can get back to having volunteers man local clinics as true charity operations with no bowing down to government death panels.
You wrote: “I also think it’s pretty safe to say that the era of it mattering if the candidate is Catholic has long since passed (i.e. I don’t think any sizable number of non-Catholics would refuse to vote for a Catholic and John Kerry showed that Catholics are not willing to vote for someone just because they are Catholic).”
There would certainly be a problem if the Presidential candidate was a practicing Catholic... Look what they did to Bush for practicing his Faith!!
Everyone knew that John Kerry was only a self-identified Catholic ... not a practicing Catholic.
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