Senate Pro-Abortion Health Care: The Grinch That Stole Christmas

Under the cloak of Christmas Eve, Senate Democrats stealthfully approved a health care bill that is jammed pack with holiday gifts for some and lumps of coal for others.

PHOENIX, AZ (Catholic Online) - Under the cloak of Christmas Eve, Senate Democrats stealthfully approved a health care bill that is jammed pack with holiday gifts for some and lumps of coal for others.

The insurance industry and constituents of key Democratic Senators and others on Senator Reid's nice list will have much to cheer about. However, the unborn are clearly on Senator Reid's naughty list and they will suffer greatly if this horrible legislation is enacted.

All black humor aside, the Catholic and pro-life community is greatly concerned about Senate bill provisions that will change federal policy in favor of funding abortion.

To place this bill in a historical Christmas context, Senator Reid's effort to transform federal policy to promote abortion would bring a smile to the lips of one of life's enemies of old; King Herod. During the first Christmas, King Herod's edict resulted in the killings of all newborn boys in Bethlehem.

If Senator Reid (D-NV) has his way, by legislative fiat the power and might of the world's mightiest nation will support abortion like never before, resulting in the deaths of millions of the unborn. Yes, King Herod would certainly be proud of Senator Reid and his gang of sixty.

What is it about the Senate bill which troubles the pro-life community? The Senate bill will undermine prohibitions against federal funding contained in the Hyde amendment. Unlike the House health care bill's "Stupak amendment" restrictions on federal funding of abortions, the Senate bill would create a federally controlled health care plan which will cover elective abortions for the first time.

Prior to supporting the Senate bill, Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) received accolades from the pro-life community for his public stand against the bills abortion funding provisions. However, Senator Nelson then brokered a compromise now contained in the Senate bill which limits federal financing of abortion but falls far short of the House bill abortion funding prohibitions.

Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) criticized Senator Nelson's abortion compromise stating that it represented a major shift in federal policy since it would authorize the federal government to subsidize insurance policies that cover abortion.

Additionally, Senator Nelson's winning an estimated $100,000,000 sweetheart deal for Nebraska won him little favor back home with his constituents. Nebraska Governor Heineman excoriated Senator Nelson for his support of the Senate bill which will be an unfunded mandate that will financially all Americans.

Further, Nebraska Right To Life Executive Director Julie Schmit-Albin strongly criticized Senator Nelson for his support of the Senate bill and its weak abortion compromise.

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The proposed health care bills continue to be quite unpopular with the most recent Rasmussen poll showing that 55% of Americans are opposed to the Senate bill. When you dig down deeper into this legislation there is much to substantiate the public's distaste, above and beyond the abortion supporting provisions.

Perhaps you remember the media blitz which demonized the insurance industry? In the mother of all ironies, private insurance companies are first in line for a tremendous windfall under this health care reform.

With the dropping of the public insurance option, private insurance carriers were moved off of Senator Reid's naughty list and hastily put onto his nice list. According to the CBO, the Senate bill would result in a huge wealth transfer of $1.0 trillion from American taxpayers to private insurance companies.

This massive wealth transfer would result from federal mandates that will require more Americans to buy more insurance from those demonized insurance companies. So there you have it. The solution to the so-called health care crisis is that we have to buy more insurance from the very insurance companies that supposedly caused the crisis? If you feel like you don't know whether to laugh or to cry, you are not alone.

It is important to realize that the insurance industry will forever change when they receive this government largesse. Just as the automakers and the banks have realized all too painfully, there is no free government bailout. The health care insurance industry will be subject to increasing levels of federal control such that health insurance companies may look more and more like heavily regulated public utilities.

The increasing encroachment of the federal government into health care insurance is contrary to the fundamental principle of Catholic social doctrine of subsidiarity. This important Church doctrine states that decisions are best made at a smaller, more local level, rather than issuing forth from a more distant centralized source.

Subsidiarity is wholly consistent with principles of limited government and personal freedom. On the other hand, it stands squarely in opposition to the statist welfare state's core tenets of top down, centralized bureaucratic planning.

The practical impact of such a takeover of the health insurance industry would be to sacrifice the freedom which people have to make individualized health care choices. This freedom would give way to a federal command and control health insurance system.

One of the results of such a system would be an institutional hostility to Catholic pro-life values like rights of conscience, respect for life and other areas.

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Given the unpopularity of the Senate bill, it is clear that winning the hearts and minds of the Americans was not a top priority of Senator Reid and his gang of sixty. What then are the objectives of the Democrat senators and others who are pushing these health insurance changes?

Very little in the Senate bill has anything to do with the oft repeated mantra of reducing health care costs and improving access to health care.

Instead, the real objective of the Senate bill seems to be to subject health care insurance to centralized government control. As such, this legislation extends the federal governments control over yet another American industry and has very little to do with improving health care.

This Senate bill is clearly not American politics in its finest hour. The backroom closed door deal-making by and for different Senators falls far short of the new era of political transparency we were promised by the promoters of change during the 2008 elections.

Instead, what we are seeing is a political modus operandi which is quite Machiavellian, smacking of Chicago-style politics. Elections have consequences as Americans are now finally realizing.

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Mark Henry is a Catholic attorney, speaker and author of "Finish Faithful", a how to guide on Catholic estate planning. He can be reached at mthenrysaz@gmail.com.

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