U.S. Catholic Bishops Stand for Life in the Health Care Debate

We are in a struggle to hold back the advance of the Culture of Death. Our Bishops lead us in this monumental struggle.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - As a member of the Clergy of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia I recently received a package from the "Respect Life Program" of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops launching their newest effort in what I like to call our "whole life/pro-life" approach as Catholics.

The campaign is entitled "Every Child Brings us God's Smile." The title is taken directly from a 2007 Homily given by the great champion of life, the theologian in the Chair of Peter, Pope Benedict XVI. The package was beautifully presented and I was compelled to stop and read all of its contents. For someone who receives almost every pro-life piece of literature being offered, that is saying something!

The materials inside were so well done, inspiring, clear and helpful ... that I frankly felt like weeping. I paused to thank the Lord of Life for the privilege of being a Catholic and, in particular, a Catholic Deacon, in this new missionary age. We are involved in a great struggle to hold back the advance of the Culture of Death and replace it with a new Culture of Life and Civilization of Love. There is no doubt that the Catholic Church is at the forefront of the greatest human rights struggle in this moment in history.

The US President has made a great deal of his admiration of the full breadth of Catholic Social teaching. He regularly refers to the influence that the late Cardinal Joseph Cardinal Bernadin of Chicago had on his moral vision in his days of community organizing in Chicago. In particular he cites the late Cardinal's use of the phrase "Seamless Garment."

The Cardinal first used the phrase in a speech which he gave entitled "A Consistent Ethic of Life: Continuing the Dialogue." It was a part of the "The William Wade Lecture Series" delivered at St. Louis University on March 11, 1984.

A review of that message and an honest study of the late Cardinal's effort to use that phrase in an attempt to communicate the "whole life/ pro-life" Social teaching of the Catholic Church certainly reveals his sincere Pro-Life vision. It also reveals that this phrase has been too often co-opted by others to stand for positions which he never intended and which, in effect, betray that teaching.

The very notion of a seamless garment is founded upon the absolute insistence of the Church upon the dignity of every human person from conception, through birth, through every age and stage of life, to the natural death of the human person. It seems obvious to anyone who simply reads Catholic Social teaching that this garment cannot be divided! However, the Right to Life and the dignity of every human person is the very thread which holds it together and not some "issue".

The Catholic insistence upon the dignity of the human person is the foundation of our opposition to every procured abortion; our insistence upon public policy which mebodies compassion and care for the poor, our solidarity with prisoners, our disdain for war, our love for the disabled, our opposition to euthanasia (passive or active), our opposition to deadly research on embryonic human persons, our insistence that science serve the human person, the family and the common good, our concern for the proper stewardship of the resources of the earth, ....

The late Cardinal would be appalled by the notion that the phrase would ever be used to support the taking of innocent human life in the first home of the whole human race, their mother's womb, using tax payer dollars. That is the danger and the evil we currently face in what is being called "Health Care Reform". Period, end of story!

Justin Cardinal Rigali serves as the Chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities. He is a champion of life, at every age and stage. He has shown great courage in this important position. We present for our millions of readers around the globe a letter which he sent to the US Congress this week insisting that any health care reform abide by the truth that every human person has dignity and unequivocally repudiate the use of taxpayer funds for the taking of innocent human life in the womb.

We also ask our millions of readers around the globe to pray for the Cardinal and for all of our beloved Bishops that they can remain faithful, vigilant and undaunted in their insistence that "Abortion is not health care" as they continue their apostolic mission.

Letter from Justin Cardinal Rigali to Congress

Dear Representative:

As you continue deliberations on the "America's Affordable Health Choices Act" (H.R.
3200), I urge you to consider the overall priorities and concerns presented by the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops in Bishop William Murphy's July 17 letter to Congress
(www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/2009-07-17-murphy-letter-congress.pdf). The bishops' conference views health care as a basic right belonging to all human beings. We therefore have long supported health care reform that respects human life and dignity from conception to natural death; provides access to quality health care for all, with a special concern for immigrants and the poor; preserves pluralism, with respect for rights of conscience; and restrains costs while sharing them equitably.

As this debate continues we will share our perspectives on positive and negative features in this and other health care reform legislation. In this letter I am writing specifically about our fundamental requirement that such legislation respect human life and rights of conscience in the context of abortion. Much-needed reform must not become a vehicle for promoting an "abortion rights" agenda or reversing longstanding policies against federal funding and mandated coverage of abortion. In this sense we urge you to make this legislation "abortion neutral," by preserving longstanding federal policies that prevent government promotion of abortion and respect conscience rights.

As amended by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on July 31, H.R. 3200 addresses two aspects of the abortion issue: The Act will not preempt certain state laws regulating abortion, and will have no effect on existing federal conscience rights on abortion.

These changes are helpful improvements. Especially welcome is the committee's approval of the Stupak/Pitts amendment, prohibiting governmental bodies that receive federal funds under this Act from discriminating against providers and insurers who decline involvement in abortion.

The bishops' conference had urged approval of this amendment, which applies the policy of the Weldon amendment (approved by Congress every year since 2004 as part of the Labor/HHS appropriations bill) to the health care reform bill.

On two other fundamental issues, however, the Act remains seriously deficient:

1. The legislation delegates to the Secretary of Health and Human Services the power to make unlimited abortion a mandated benefit in the "public health insurance plan" the government will manage nationwide. This would be a radical change: Federal law has long excluded most abortions from federal employees' health benefits packages, and no federal health program mandates coverage of elective abortions.

2. Because some federal funds are authorized and appropriated by this legislation without passing through the Labor/HHS appropriations bill, they are not covered by the Hyde amendment and other federal provisions that have long prevented federal funding of abortion and of health benefits packages that include abortion. The committee rejected an amendment to extend this longstanding policy to the use of federal subsidies for health care premiums under this Act. Instead the committee created a legal fiction, a paper separation between federal funding and abortion: 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 (specified in the Act to be at least $1.00 a month) to cover all abortions beyond those eligible for federal funds under the current Hyde amendment. 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.

Furthermore, those constrained by economic necessity or other factors to purchase the "public plan" will be forced by the federal government to pay directly and specifically for abortion coverage. This is the opposite of the policy in every other federal health program. Government will force low-income Americans to subsidize abortions for others (and abortion coverage for themselves) even if they find abortion morally abhorrent.

Please consider the broader context. No federal program mandates coverage for elective abortions, or subsidizes health plans that include such abortions. Most Americans do not want abortion in their health coverage, and most consider themselves "pro-life," with a stronger majority among low-income Americans. About 80 percent of all hospitals do not generally provide abortions, and 85 percent of U.S. counties have no abortion provider. By what right, then, and by what precedent, would Congress make abortion coverage into a nationwide norm, or force Americans to subsidize it as a condition for participating in a public health program?

As long-time supporters of genuine health care reform, the United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops is working to ensure that needed health reform is not undermined by abandoning longstanding and widely supported policies against abortion funding and mandates and in favor of conscience protection.

I urge you to help ensure that any legislation that comes up for a vote in the full House does not include these unacceptable features. Please support amendments to correct them, and oppose any rule for consideration of H.R. 3200 that would block such amendments. By your actions on these issues, you can advance urgently needed health care reform that will truly serve the poor and needy and uphold the dignity of all.

Sincerely,
Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, Chairman, USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities

Thank you Cardinal Rigali. Thank you dear Bishops of the Catholic Church! Our prayers, our loyalty and our support are with you as you stand for the truth about life.

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