A follow-up as the debate enters its final stage
Thousands of you read, responded to and shared my August piece about the health care debate and Catholicism. We are now in the final phase of the Congressional process and some things are clearer than they were then. Catholic Church leaders wanted undocumented immigrants included in the bill. They are not. Sadly, the Church stands almost alone among organizations in this country in its concern for the undocumented. They wanted universal coverage, and to the surprise of many, it looks like it will happen.
But, though the House bill does not fund or encourage abortion services, the bishops and most Catholics wanted specific language keeping abortion out of the bill entirely, and making it impossible for a future administrative action to change this, effectively bringing the Hyde Amendment into the bill and codifying it in a way that is stronger than its current status. This still could happen, as pro-life Democrats take up the cause. But what if it doesn’t?
The US bishops have a clear answer: Kill the bill. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops began a massive final push on health care this past weekend, hitting 17,000 parishes with a bulletin insert and email campaign to be distributed over the next few weeks. The bishops’ final stand on the absence of strong enough pro-life language: “If these serious concerns are not addressed, the final bill should be opposed.”
But what of universal coverage? What of help for the uninsured, some of whom die and suffer for lack of medical care?
In September, Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, expressed a very different view, equally grounded in Catholic teaching. Having lived for 16 years in the US, Cardinal Martino said he “could never explain” the fact that a large number of Americans lacked health care assistance, something every other developed nation provides for its citizens, concluding, about President Obama’s efforts for health care reform, “So I cannot but applaud this initiative.”
As I said in my earlier piece, if you oppose the bill on the basis that it should do more to exclude abortion, recognize that choice leads also to denying health care coverage to tens of millions of Americans — your neighbors — whose quality of life would be improved and some of whose lives would be saved.
The bishops’ press release accompanying this latest push reiterates that church teaching says “health care is essential for human life and dignity,” while also saying the bishops “recoil at any expansion of abortion.”
And that’s the point. Both issues are involved and there’s no way to separate them.
[Read the rest of Health Care Reform and Catholicism Revisited at bustedhalo.com.]
