Monday, August 10, 2009

Kathryn Lopez: In Debate Over Health Care, Abortion Can't Be Swept Aside

From National Review:
... The Associated Press has pointed out that the reforms would open up rivers of federal funding not bound by previous legislative restrictions relating to abortion, and Michael New, a University of Alabama professor and visiting fellow at Princeton, has asserted that the bills’ language opens the door for future regulations that would require private insurers to cover abortions.

“Few people realize that, as things stand, abortion could be a required benefit in all health-insurance plans, and it would be subsidized not only in health-care premiums, but also through taxation,” says Dr. Louis Breschi, president of the Catholic Medical Association.

A spokesman for Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat and the chairman of the House Rules Committee, admitted to a reporter: “The starting point for Representative Slaughter on the health-care debate was protecting abortion rights.” Groups like Planned Parenthood know what they want out of health-care reform: a way to ensure that American women have easy access to abortion. Washington Democrats are all too eager to comply.

Differing interpretations of social justice will mean different policy prescriptions, but on the essential moral issue of life, one thing is clear: Thou shalt not kill. And this principle should be central in the discussion of Obamacare. Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, put it succinctly: “We want to see people who have no health insurance get it, but this is a sticking point. We don’t want health-care reform to be the vehicle for mandating abortion.”


[Read the whole thing]

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Human Life Is More than a "Distraction"

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