"Completely Unacceptable" and "An Enormous Disappointment"
by Fr. Roger Landry - November 27, 2009
In a November 20 letter to U.S. Senators about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's 2,074 page health care reform bill, Cardinal Daniel Dinardo, Bishop William Murphy and Bishop John Wester, writing on behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, minced no words in calling Reid's proposal "completely unacceptable" and "an enormous disappointment." They said that it fails to meet the moral criteria with regard to human life and conscience protection as well as fails to achieve universal access to care and ensure for adequate affordability and coverage standards.
Reid's proposal, they stated, "violates the longstanding federal policy against the use of federal funds for elective abortions and health plans that include such abortions - a policy upheld in all health programs covered by the Hyde Amendment, the Children's Health Insurance Program, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program - and now in the House-passed 'Affordable Health Care for America Act.' We believe legislation that violates this moral principle is not true health care reform and must be amended to reflect it. If that fails, the current legislation should be opposed." Simply put: abortion is not health care and taxpayers should not be compelled to subsidize it.
"In the aftermath of the overwhelming and bipartisan House vote for the [Stupak] Amendment," they continued, "there has been much misunderstanding of what it does and does not do." This misunderstanding has come from an organized campaign of mendacity coming from the Obama White House, various pro-abortion figures on Capitol Hill, as well as segments of the secular media that are claiming that the Stupak Amendment "changes the status quo" on abortion funding. The bishops respond forthrightly: "This amendment does not change the current situation in our country: Abortion is legal and available, but no federal dollars can be used to pay for elective abortions or plans that include elective abortions. This provision simply keeps in place existing policy and allows Congress to honor the President's commitment that 'no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions.' The amendment does not restrict abortion, or prevent people from buying insurance covering abortion with their own funds. It simply ensures that where federal funds are involved, people are not required to pay for other people's abortions."
The bishops then get specific about how Senator Reid's bill changes the status quo. "Thus far, the pending Senate bill does not live up to President Obama's commitment of barring the use of federal dollars for abortion and maintaining current conscience laws. The bill provides federal funding for plans that cover abortion, and creates an unprecedented mandatory 'abortion surcharge' in such plans that will require pro-life purchasers to pay directly and explicitly for other people's abortions. Its version of a public health plan (the "community health insurance plan") allows the Secretary of [the Department of Health and Human Services] to mandate coverage of unlimited abortions nationwide, and also allows each state to mandate such abortion coverage for all state residents taking part in this federal program even if the Secretary does not do so. The bill seriously weakens the current nondiscrimination policy protecting providers who decline involvement in abortion, providing stronger protection for facilities that perform and promote abortion than for those which do not. The legislation requires each region of the insurance exchange to include at least one health plan with unlimited abortion, contrary to the policy of all other federal health programs. Finally, critically important conscience protections on issues beyond abortion have yet to be included in the bill. To take just one example, the bill fails to ensure that even religious institutions would retain the freedom to offer their own employees health insurance coverage that conforms to the institution's teaching. On these various issues the new Senate bill is an enormous disappointment, creating new and completely unacceptable federal policy that endangers human life and rights of conscience."
Following upon the massive mobilization of Catholics to help the House pass the Stupak Amendment, the bishops are asking all Catholics to contact their Senators to ensure that the pro-abortion provisions of the present bill and stricken and language similar to the Stupak amendment is added. Massachusetts residents are requested to call, email or fax the offices of Senators John Kerry and Paul Kirk with a message similar to the following: "Please adopt the House-approved Stupak Amendment that upholds longstanding policies against abortion funding, and please protect conscience rights in health care." Senator Kerry's phone number is 508.677.0522 and his web-accessible email portal, kerry.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm. Senator Kirk's phone is 877.472.9014 and email portal, kirk.senate.gov/contact.
The prelates included with their letter a detailed fact sheet on the Stupak amendment that responds specifically to the "number of misunderstandings and false claims" about the Amendment being claimed by pro-abortion spin machine. Against the charge that the Stupak amendment is "broader" than the Hyde amendment and changes the status quo of abortion funding, the fact sheet replies, "Critics of the Stupak Amendment have said that the Hyde Amendment prevents the use of federal funds only for the abortion procedure itself, not for entire benefits packages that include abortion. But this is simply not true. For many years the annual Hyde amendment has said that no funds appropriated in the Labor/HHS appropriations bill may support 'health benefits coverage that includes coverage of abortion.' This and other current federal health programs already bar use of federal funds to subsidize health plans that include elective abortions. The Stupak amendment follows this same policy."
The fact sheet adds that the Stupak amendment does not forbid abortion coverage in health plans that use only private funds. In fact, it says, the amendment "explicitly says that people not using federal subsidies to purchase a health plan may purchase a plan with elective abortion coverage. Even people who use federal subsidies to buy their overall health coverage may use their own private funds to purchase a supplemental policy covering abortion if they wish to do so." It goes on, "Anyone who has employer-based or other private insurance coverage now can keep it as before, because anyone who can afford such coverage without a federal subsidy will not be covered by the Hyde policy. Individuals who do not get insurance from their employer, but do not qualify for a subsidy, are free to buy a plan on the Exchange that includes abortions. Someone who does qualify for a subsidy can use it to purchase a plan without elective abortions, then purchase a supplemental abortion policy using only private funds if they wish to do so." The bishops are obviously not encouraging people to purchase plans that pay for abortions, but merely saying that the Stupak amendment does not prevent private insurance plans from covering abortion, which is the status quo.
The fact sheet details that "most Americans oppose public funding of abortion. A September 2009 survey conducted by International Communications Research is of special interest: Strong majorities opposed 'measures that would require people to pay for abortion coverage with their federal taxes' (67% against to 19% in favor), as well as measures requiring them to pay for such coverage with their 'health insurance premiums' (56% against, 32% in favor). Respondents were also asked: 'If the choice were up to you, would you want your own insurance policy to include abortion?' Sixty-eight percent said no, with 24% saying yes. Opposition to abortion coverage was somewhat higher among women (69%), and people in lower income and education brackets; those who lack insurance now, the people most affected by this legislation, opposed abortion coverage 82% to 15%."
The fact sheet concludes: "In short, the Stupak amendment is a modest and reasonable measure. It reflects the Hyde amendment and all other existing federal abortion funding policies in the context of health care reform. Under this policy, anyone who actually wants abortion coverage can buy it with their own money; the government does not use taxpayer funds for abortions; and no one who opposes abortion is forced through their health premiums to pay for other people's abortions. Congress should retain this amendment in any final health care reform legislation."
Catholic citizens are urged to act to ensure that Congress does retain it.
Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.
