Fr. Frank Pavone: "Health Care hijacked by abortion extremists"

Staten Island, NY – Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, commented on the Senate’s vote on the Nelson Amendment to the health care bill.  

“Those in the Senate who rejected this Amendment have voted to let their attachment to the abortion industry interfere with health care reform in this country. These Senators could have listened to their constituents and opposed abortion funding. Instead, they are allowing this effort at reform to be hijacked by abortion extremists.”

Priests for Life is the nation's largest Catholic pro-life organization dedicated to ending abortion and euthanasia. For more information, visit www.priestsforlife.org.

Another Kennedy blasts the Bishops on abortion

Here's another Kennedy who just doesn't get it and is scandalizing the public with her anti-life views.

Catholic World News reports the following:

Former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the eldest child of Robert F. Kennedy, has blasted the nation’s bishops for opposing the use of federal funds to pay for abortions. Mrs. Townsend is the first cousin of Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), whom Bishop Thomas Tobin has publicly called to repentance and conversion for supporting abortion.
“There are millions of pro-abortion rights Catholics who understand that women faced with unintended pregnancies or complications in wanted pregnancies have to make difficult, complex decisions for themselves and their families,” Mrs. Townsend writes. “They do not make the decision to have an abortion lightly and without weighing all of their options. They must retain the ability to make this decision and the ability to access the care they need, whatever their choice may be. That means they must have access to health insurance that covers abortion care-- just as millions of Americans must have access to affordable health insurance and health care.”
Straining credulity, Mrs. Townsend’s concluding paragraph leads readers to believe that the Vatican would support health care legislation that would fund abortions. “I want Catholic bishops to heed the Vatican’s call for charity and justice for all, not just for the wealthy and well connected,” she writes.

Related Information:

A Kennedy Tries To Tell The Bishops How To Be Catholic

With pro-life amendment's defeat, US bishops urge opposition to Senate health bill

By a 54-45 vote, the United States Senate has rejected the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment to health care legislation. The amendment would have kept in place “the longstanding and widely supported federal policy against government funding of health coverage that includes elective abortions,” as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops stated before the vote.

With the failure of the amendment, the bishops write that “the current legislation should be opposed.” Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, and Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City-- who respectively chair the bishops’ committees on domestic justice, pro-life activities, and migration-- noted:

The bill currently before the Senate allows the HHS Secretary to mandate abortion coverage throughout the government-run “community health insurance option.” It also provides funding for other plans that cover unlimited abortions, 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. The bill does not maintain essential nondiscrimination protections for providers who decline involvement in abortion.

The pro-life amendment fell on a 54-45 vote. All but two Republican senators voted in favor of the amendment; the exceptions were Senators Snowe and Collins of Maine. All but 7 Democrats voted against the amendment; the exceptions were Senators Nelson of Nebraska, Casey of Pennsylvania, Bayh of Indiana, Conrad and Dorgan of North Dakota, Kaufman of Delaware, and Pryor of Arkansas.

A bare Senate majority of 51 votes is required for passage of the health-care reform bill. (Actually 50 votes would suffice, because Vice President Biden would case a tie-breaking vote in favor.) So the 54 votes against the pro-life language suggested that sponsors might have enough support to ensure ultimate passage of the legislation. However, several Democratic senators have indicated that they may not support the bill in a final vote, for a variety of reasons. Also, 60 votes are necessary to close debate on the proposal, and the 54-vote margin leaves Democratic leaders well short of that goal.

~ Via Catholic World News.

For more information:

• Senate rejects ban on abortion coverage in health care bill (Dallas Morning News)
• U.S. Bishops Urge Senators to Support Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment on Health Care Reform; Urge Constituents to Back It (USCCB)
• Senate debating abortion funding and health care (CWN, 12/7)
• U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 111th Congress - 1st Session
•  Senate Defeats Nelson Amendment to Stop Abortion Funding in Health Care Bill