The U.S. House of Representatives, under the leadership of the Catholic Nancy Pelosi, today will vote on a bill that uses taxpayers’ money to insure abortions. As a result of the abortion subsidies in the bill, the US Conference on Catholic Bishops has called on all members of the House to vote no.
From the letter:
The Senate bill extends abortion coverage, allows federal funds to pay for elective abortions (for example, through a new appropriation for services at Community Health Centers that bypasses the Hyde amendment), and denies adequate conscience protection to individuals and institutions. Needed health care reform must keep in place the longstanding and widely supported federal policy that neither elective abortion nor plans which include elective abortion can be paid for with federal funds.
But the Bishops also oppose the bill because of its treatment of immigrants:
The Senate bill would not only continue current law that denies legal immigrants access to Medicaid for five years, but also prohibit undocumented immigrants from buying insurance for their families in the exchanges using their own money. These provisions could leave immigrants and their families worse off, and also hurt the public health of our nation.
In Catholic teaching, there is the idea of proportionality: If a bill contained bad elements it could still be worth supporting the bill’s positive elements outweighed the negative. The Bishops have concluded that the bad in this bill clearly outweigh the good.
