Posted on 09/10/2009 8:28:43 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) – A top adviser to President Barack Obama told CNSNews.com the White House hopes the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will come to understand that the Democrats’ health care reform legislation does not cover abortion.
“I think the church has been a great progressive force on issues like this. Hopefully, bishops will see a way to support this (health care reform legislation),” David Axelrod, senior advisor to the president, told CNSNews.com Wednesday night.
Axelrod said he does not believe the Catholic Church is intentionally spreading misinformation, as the White House says other opponents of the legislation are doing.
“I think that they are earnestly trying to work their way through this issue,” Axelrod told CNSNews.com on Wednesday night, shortly after Obama addressed a joint session of Congress.
In a letter to House members on Aug. 11, Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, noted that federal funds under the House bill do not pass through the normal appropriations process, and thus are not subject to the Hyde Amendment – a law that prohibits federal funding of abortions.
(See previous story)
“Federal funds will subsidize the public plan, as well as private health plans that include abortion on demand; but anyone who purchases these plans is required to pay a premium out of his or her own pocket…” Rigali wrote. “Thus some will claim that federal taxpayer funds do not support abortion under the Act.
“But this is an illusion. Funds paid into these plans are fungible, and federal taxpayer funds will subsidize the operating budget and provider networks that expand access to abortions,” the Rigali’s letter said.
In his Wednesday night speech to Congress, Obama he wanted to clear up the “misunderstanding” that federal funds will be used to pay for abortions. “Under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place,” Obama said.
Axelrod reiterated that statement after the speech.
“We’ve talked to the bishops, and the president made his position clear on this,” Axelrod told CNSNews.com. “Hopefully, they will come to see that the assertion he made tonight is accurate.
“This should not be turned into a debate about abortion,” Axelrod said. “It’s about making sure people don’t get thrown off their insurance if they get sick. It’s about making sure if people have preexisting conditions they can still get insurance. This is about people not going broke if they become seriously ill, and this is about people who don’t have insurance having the opportunity to get it. And we ought not to be diverted.”
Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.), who ran as a pro-life Democrat in 2006, believes the final version of a health care reform bill will explicitly prohibit abortion.
“In the end, I think the final bill we send the president will have language in it that is Hyde language or something very comparable to that. I think that’s what will happen,” Casey told CNSNews.com.
However, committees in both the House and Senate have rejected amendments explicitly forbidding federal money from going to pay for abortion under health care reform legislation.
In July, the House Energy and Commerce Committee rejected by a 30-29 vote an amendment that said, “No funds authorized under this Act (or an amendment by this Act) may be used to pay for any abortion.”
The committee then passed an amendment by Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) that would leave it up to private insurers whether to fund abortions, even if these private insurers are covering federally subsidized customers. T
The Capps amendment also required that at least one insurer in the federal insurance exchange cover abortion, leaving it up to the secretary of health and human services to decide if the public option itself would provide abortion coverage.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee adopted an amendment by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) that requires insurance companies to include services for pregnant women and women in childbearing years.
Though the Mikulski amendment does not directly say that it would cover abortions, Sens. Orin Hatch (R-Utah) and Casey asked if the language was broad enough to include coverage of abortion. Mikulski responded, “It would provide for any service deemed medically necessary or medically appropriate.”
When Hatch asked if she would add language to her amendment to specifically exclude abortion coverage, Mikulski answered: “No. I would not be willing to do that at this time.”
In a letter to House members on Aug. 11, Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, noted that federal funds under the House bill do not pass through the normal appropriations process, and thus are not subject to the Hyde Amendment – a law that prohibits federal funding of abortions.
“Federal funds will subsidize the public plan, as well as private health plans that include abortion on demand; but anyone who purchases these plans is required to pay a premium out of his or her own pocket…” Rigali wrote. “Thus some will claim that federal taxpayer funds do not support abortion under the Act.
“But this is an illusion. Funds paid into these plans are fungible, and federal taxpayer funds will subsidize the operating budget and provider networks that expand access to abortions,” the Rigali’s letter said.
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As long as the possibility for payment of abortion and/or euthanasia exists....there will be NO support.
Well, that’s so idealistic of you. The USCCB needs the federal money to run its hospitals and just as the schools have caved to the federal money, so will the hospitals. So far, Mammon is winning!
Why did the Democrats vote against EVERY amendment that would have kept taxpayer support of abortion out of the health care bill? The Democrats LIE.
The Bishops have been coming out AGAINST Obamacare because it funds abortions. Are they citing any other reason to oppose Obamacare?
Begging Caesar to render welfare unto us: a conversation with Archbishop Chaput
Let us not forget November 4,2008, and the large numbers of relgious folks(all denominations) who supported this abortionist in chief.
I usually have no hope that the USCCB will do anthing sensible where politics are concerned. However, I happily predict that the group will NOT endorse Obamacare. Anti-abortion groups — all of them — are hitting back hard at Obama’s lies that his health proposals won’t fund abortions. Given that pro-life groups have made it clear they will not be quiet, the USCCB will not want to set itself up to have to have to defend Obamacare forever, which is what they will have to do if they support it. Plus, The widespread opposition to Obamacare among independents and Dems over 65 means that the USCCB will be less eager than they usually are to vote for whatever socialist proposal that’s on the table.
There will be a smaller group, which is growing increasingly vocal, who will oppose Obamacare and not only because of the abortion issue.
The sliver lining to this dark cloud (at least from a Catholic perspective) is that this issue may help to further split and weaken the accursed USCCB and eventually lead to its demise.
The local Catholic conference leader told me that the bishops support these social agendas and as this guy put it, they will defend life “on a case by case basis” if it comes to that.
Let's try:
Obama Adviser Hopes The majority of Catholic Bishops Will Find A Way to Support Democrats’ Health Care Reform Legislation, Despite while glossing over their flocks' Abortion Concerns.
There. Fixed it for you.
Once again, let me provide you my favorite papal quote that applies (and, of course, is utterly ignored by the USCCB):
Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do. For every social activity ought of its very nature to furnish help to the members of the body social, and never destroy and absorb them.
Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, 79
A true "inconvenient truth."
/cynicism
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