By Dave Andrusko

Events are changing by the hour, so hold on to your hat as we move closer to a vote on the Senate health care bill. Since the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is a major participant in delivering health care, its opposition to Senate bill H.R. 3590 now before the House for action--or non-action action--is crucially important. (See Part Two for a brief explanation of some of the latest shenanigans being proposed by the pro-abortion Democratic congressional leadership.)

Cardinal Francis George

Critics of NRLC and the Bishops argue that they misread the language of the Senate bill, passed last December. Some go so far as to tell us that the Senate's bill (which intentionally does not include the equivalent of the House's pro-life Stupak-Pitts amendment) is more pro-life! NRLC has debunked that dangerous silliness repeatedly, as have the Bishops. (www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/March10/nv031210.html)

Last night, Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement reiterating the Conference's opposition under the title, "The Cost is too High; the Loss is too Great." You can read the statement in its entirety at www.catholicnewsagency.com/document.php?n=980.

On behalf of the Bishops, Cardinal George highlights three objections, none of which is "quibbling over technicalities," all of which make the bill "deeply disturbing" to the Bishops.

They include (1) the way the proposed multi-state plans are constructed violate the understanding exemplified by the Hyde Amendment which "excludes abortion from all health insurance plans receiving federal subsidies."

(2) "Further, the Senate bill authorizes and appropriates billions of dollars in new funding outside the scope of the appropriations bills covered by the Hyde amendment and similar provisions."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer

And (3) "Additionally, no provision in the Senate bill incorporates the longstanding and widely supported protection for conscience regarding abortion as found in the Hyde/Weldon amendment." Cardinal George adds, "Moreover, neither the House nor Senate bill contains meaningful conscience protection outside the abortion context."

Cardinal George also politely disagrees with the analysis offered by the Catholic Health Association (www.chausa.org/The_time_is_now_for_health_reform.aspx).

In a nutshell the CHA not only does not "completely share" the Bishops' analysis of the Senate health bill's flaws, it also believes "that the defects that they do recognize can be corrected after the passage of the final bill."

But "Assurances that the moral objections to the legislation can be met only after the bill is passed seem a little like asking us, in Midwestern parlance, to buy a pig in a poke," Cardinal George writes.

If you have not gone to http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/callalert/index.tt?alertid=14772666&type=CO and/or shared this Action Alert with all your pro-life friends, please do so immediately.

Part Two