SUBSCRIBER LOGIN

Search
First Things

Loading
« Previous  |Home|  Next »         

Do Not Be Fooled
Thursday, March 18, 2010, 7:05 AM

In the wake of the endorsement of the current health-reform bill by Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, Archbishop Chaput of Denver has issued this statement:

In the past two days, congressional leaders and the White House have brought tremendous pressure on prolife Democratic members of Congress to support a fatally flawed Senate version of health care reform.

Regrettably, groups like Network and the Catholic Health Association have done a grave disservice to the American Catholic community by undermining the leadership of the nation’s Catholic bishops, sowing confusion among faithful Catholics, and misleading legislators through their support of the Senate bill.

Do not be fooled. Nothing has changed. The Senate bill remains gravely flawed on the issues of abortion funding, conscience protections, and the inclusion of immigrants. Unless seriously revised to address these issues, the Senate version of health care is unethical and should be firmly opposed.

6 Comments

    Bibbit
    March 18th, 2010 | 7:41 am

    No surprise this good man is stepping up to the plate. Would that more would get in the game.

    William F. Cavender
    March 18th, 2010 | 10:12 am

    As usual, Bishop Chaput speaks a clear voice for the church.
    I have heard Sister Keehan interviewed eliciting my prayer, “God help us. May she not be the voice of Catholic hospitals.”
    I have read of Network; unhappily, another group which has infiltrated the church with contrary intentions.
    “God help us” – and does, indeed.

    David Sessions
    March 18th, 2010 | 10:44 am

    http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/18/massachusetts-study-health-care-reform-could-reduce-abortions/

    Joe Carter
    March 18th, 2010 | 10:54 am

    David,

    Michael New has already helped to debunk the “health reform reduces abortion” meme:

    [T]he experience of states that have offered more generous provision of public health benefits is instructive. For instance in 1974, Hawaii passed legislation requiring all employers to provide relatively generous health care benefits to any employee who works 20 hours a week or more. Since that time, Hawaii has consistently had one of the lowest rates of uninsured adults in the country. However, according to data from the Alan Guttmacher Institute, Hawaii’s abortion rate consistently exceeds the national average

    An even better example comes from Tennessee. In 1994, Tennessee launched an ambitious public insurance program to cover its uninsured. TennCare, as it is called, expanded Medicaid to cover people who couldn’t afford insurance or who had been denied coverage by an insurance company. With an initial budget of $2.6 billion, TennCare quickly extended coverage to an additional 500,000 people by making access to its plans easy and affordable. The program, however, became so expensive that Tennessee was forced to scale it back in 2005.

    Despite the fact that Tennessee invested heavily in more generous public health benefits, their abortion rate has not changed much since the mid 1990s. In fact, the decline in Tennessee’s abortion rate is actually well below the national average. Between 1995 and 2005, the Guttmacher Institute reports that the national abortion rate fell by 13.8 percent. However, in Tennessee the abortion rate fell by only 3.3 percent. Overall, it seems clear that more generous health benefits in Tennessee did little to reduce the incidence of abortion.

    Daniel
    March 18th, 2010 | 5:46 pm

    The nun who supports Obamacare doesn’t have a problem with Ahmadinejad

    http://www.networklobby.org/issues/alsoofinterest/iran9-27-07.htm

    Scroll to the bottom to get the opinion of Sister Simone Campbell, head of the group that endorsed the health care bill.

    “Touched” by his comments – No denunciation of his intent to destroy Israel, his denial of the Holocaust, etc.

    James Taranto is also covering the topic:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704207504575129650173760756.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion#articleTabs%3Darticle

    TXW
    March 18th, 2010 | 9:11 pm

    One hundred years from now, the picture of Sr. Keehan at the White House, glowingly grasping the hand of Obama, will be used against Catholics to “prove” that the Catholic Church was behind the killing of the unborn. Dan Brown’s greatgrandchild will write a book about it, and thousands of Catholics will crank against their own church as an oppressor of the unborn and the reason why so many people had to grow up without siblings.

=