How big a role did the Church play in this weekend’s House vote on health care reform?
Consider this:
Injecting itself aggressively into the health-care debate, the Roman Catholic Church in America has emerged as a major political force with the potential to upend a key piece of President Barack Obama’s agenda.Behind-the-scenes lobbying, coupled with a grassroots mobilization of Catholic churches across the country, led the House Saturday to pass an amendment to its health-care bill barring anyone who receives a new tax credit from enrolling in a plan that covers abortion, a once-unthinkable event in Democrat-dominated Washington.
The restriction would still have to be accepted by the Senate, where it will likely face a tough fight. The issue could sink the larger health legislation if the chambers fail to reach agreement, or if any consensus language leads supporters to defect.
The House vote, and the central role played by one of the country’s biggest religious denominations, stunned abortion-rights groups that had worked hard to elect Mr. Obama and expand Democratic congressional majorities. Activists on the left had thought social issues would take a back seat to economic concerns.
The bishops’ success served as a reminder that Democrats’ strategy over the past two election cycles of recruiting more conservative candidates to run in competitive House and Senate seats can have unwelcome policy consequences for liberals among the party’s base. About 40 House Democrats are opposed to abortion rights.
The bishops have a history of political activism. In the 2004 presidential race, some bishops said they would refuse to grant communion to Democratic nominee John Kerry, a Catholic who favored abortion rights. In 2005, the bishops’ conference backed efforts by then-President George W. Bush and Republican lawmakers to intervene in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case. But rarely has the church entered the fray with such decisive force.
“The Catholic bishops came in at the last minute and drew a line in the sand,” said Laurie Rubiner, vice president for public policy at the abortion-rights advocacy group Planned Parenthood. “It’s very hard to compete with that.”
Check out the rest.
posted November 10, 2009 at 8:46 am
Yes, the bishops did make a last ditch attempt. However, I believe it was too little and too late. Many parishes around the country did not talk about the health care bill. My parish in the Archdiocese of Washington included the handout this Sunday, after the bill had been voted on. And, no mention of it was made in the homily either in October or last Sunday.
Do the bishops really think that the pro-abortion forces would give up?
Personally, I believe that they (Pelosi et al) allowed this hurdle to be overcome with the general understanding that they would take out the pro-aboriton amendment. They used the bishops to get it through and then turn on them.
When will the bishops learn that you cannot trust Pelosi and the Democratic Party?
How many of them voted for the Most Merciful?
Unfortunately, you get what you asked for.
posted November 10, 2009 at 9:31 am
So now that the Church leadership has its won a concession on abortion, we should all be happy. The poor and uninsured will now be more able to afford to get the healthcare that they need. I now expect the bishops to be the strongest champions for the bill’s passage in the Senate.
posted November 10, 2009 at 10:31 am
The Bishops didn’t “win” anything. There’s not a chance that the final bill will have the aboriton clause in it, NADA. Pelosi used it to keep the bill alive for the Senate, period.
posted November 10, 2009 at 11:01 am
Isn’t “draw a line in the sand” a Biblical reference to Our Lord and the adultress?
Ironic.
posted November 10, 2009 at 11:12 am
If the Bishops think that their “Line in the Sand” won’t be washed away either by the final Health Care Bill (if it passes) or by the Courts, they are living in an alternate universe. The only way to stop public funding of abortis is to get the government out of health care.
The present legislation in either the House or the Senate does nothing to curb health care costs, nothing to stop the rise in insurance premiums and very little to cover those who are currently uninsured. What it does is rape the future generations of thi nation.
The Bishops should be focusing on those things that will help the uninsured and help the rest of the nation keep a check on rising costs such as competition across state lines for insurance companies, tort reform, and elimination of pre-existing conditons.
The Bishops should never support government intervention into health care as once the government does get in, it will not be long before these same Bishops will have to decide whether or not they will allow abortions and euthanasia to be performed in Catholic Hospitals or whether they will stand firm against these willful detruction of human life and close or sel those hospitals. This is the decision that will have to be made once the gvernment controls healthcare which is what all of this legislation is really about.
posted November 10, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Deacon Tony…as the 60ish saying goes: “RIGHT ON.”
Your last paragraph is what I fear the most. The question is whether our bishops are strong enough to close the hospital or sell it lock stock and barrel and get out of the health care business.
posted November 10, 2009 at 5:15 pm
It is beyond me how the bishops, or any thinking pro-lifer, could believe that any pro-life clause will survive this process. The bishops just got booted down the road. In the end they will look like chumps.