Here's the lede of a press release from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. If you follow this link to the complete statement, you'll find a link to a PDF of the letter the bishops sent to senators.
WASHINGTON—The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops urged the Senate to make essential changes its health reform bill in order to keep in place federal law on abortion funding and conscience protection on abortion, protect access to health care for immigrants and include strong provisions for adequate affordability.-ConcordPastor
The bishops called the Senate health care bill an “enormous disappointment” that creates new and unacceptable federal policy for funding and coverage of abortions, as well as rights of conscience. Bishop William Murphy, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo and Bishop John Wester voiced their wish for better health care reform legislation in a November 20 letter to the Senate. They chair the bishops’ Committees on Domestic Justice and Human Development, Pro-Life Activities and Migration, respectively.
Unfortunately the Stupak amendment or similar wording does not fairly represent the wishes of at least 40% of voters according to polls by even Pew Research. It is entirely fair that an opt in/out clause be added to the bill so that those whose conscience prevents them from supporting abortion need not be complicit in funding the act.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the current amendment was attempting to prevent the government from being involved at all and from allowing private insurers in the exchange to be involved. This does not serve the public proportionally based on their belief systems so is seen as one side trying to control the rights of others.