The Postal Services created a stamp with a picture of President Obama on it. The Postal Service noticed that the stamp was not sticking to envelopes. This enraged the President, who demanded a full investigation.
After a month of testing and $1.73 million in congressional spending, a special Presidential commission presented the following findings:
1. The stamp is in perfect order. 2. There is nothing wrong with the glue. 3. People are spitting on the wrong side.
The nation's Catholic bishops have launched a slew of newspaper ads criticizing the pro-abortion Senate health care bill. Their renewed effort to defeat the legislation and its abortion funding and promotion comes as dissident Catholic groups are confusing House members into supporting the bill.
"Health care reform is about saving lives, not destroying them," the ad featuring a doctor and pregnant woman says.
Deirdre McQuade of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops tells LifeNews.com the ads are appearing today in the Washington Post, Politico, The Hill, Roll Call, CQ and Congress Daily AM -- all read by members of Congress.
"For over 30 years, the Hyde Amendment and other longstanding and widely supported laws have prevented federal funding of elective abortions," the ad says. "Yet the Senate health care reform bill violates this policy — and fails to protect the life, dignity and conscience of all."
"It will appropriate billions of dollars in new funds not covered by the Hyde Amendment, and subsidize health plans that make their enrollees pay for elective abortions," the ad continues. "Americans would be forced to subsidize other people’s abortions through their taxes and health insurance premiums."
"We need genuine health care reform — reform that helps save lives, not destroy them," the bishops say in the ad. "The U.S. bishops strongly oppose abortion funding and threats to conscience, and call for critical improvements in affordability for the poor and access to health care for immigrants."
Regardless of attempts by some to cloud the issue, the Catholic Church clearly and unequivocally opposes the health care reform legislation currently pending before Congress. While the Church has long supported the goal of expanding access to health care, it cannot support, and must oppose, any expansion of access to abortion and in particular federal subsidization of it.
For almost a year, the Catholic bishops have worked tirelessly to ensure that the health care reform proposal would not include federal funding of abortion. Indeed, the only reason the House version of health care legislation even passed the House of Representatives in the fall was because it included the Stupak amendment, which applies existing protections against federal funding of abortion to the bill. The votes simply were not there to pass an abortion-friendly bill.
Yet the President and congressional leaders have decided to push ahead with the Senate version of the bill, which lacks the Stupak protections. By doing so, they are jeopardizing passage of their own health care reform bill….all for the sake of expanding access to abortion.
Every Pro-Life group in the country opposes the Senate bill and agrees with the following:
· Federal funds in the Senate bill can be used for elective abortions. The bill appropriates $7 billion for services at Community Health Centers which can be used directly for elective abortions.
· The Senate bill uses federal funds to subsidize health plans that cover abortions. Under the bill, a federal tax credit can be used to pay premiums for health plans covering elective abortions. This violates current and longstanding federal policy on abortion funding which forbids the use of federal funds for any part of a health benefits package that covers elective abortions.
· The Senate bill uses federal power to force Americans to pay for other people’s abortions even if they are morally opposed. The bill mandates that insurance companies deciding to cover elective abortions in a health plan “shall… collect from each enrollee in the plan (without regard to the enrollee’s age, sex, or family status) a separate payment” for such abortions. Everyone purchasing such a plan will be required by federal law to make separate payments solely and specifically for other people’s abortions -- no accommodation is permitted for people morally opposed to abortion.
As one might expect, many deeply misleading statements have been issued in recent days on this subject, some by organizations purporting to represent Catholics or Catholic institutions. Make no mistake: the Catholic Church determinedly opposes the Senate bill.
At a minimum, Congress must fix the Senate bill so that it no longer funds abortion and that missing conscience protections for health care professionals and institutions are provided. Please contact your representative and your senators and give them this message.
The "Sisters" are wrong...they are misleading people into thinking it is okay for Catholics to support a bill that WILL fund abortion.
The letter signed by 59 Catholic nuns sent to members of Congress yesterday endorsing the pro-abortion Senate health care bill has been dismissed by several pro-life advocates and organizations saying it doesn't represent an authentic Catholic or pro-life position.
The letter says that "despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions." YES it WILL fund abortion.
The letter says the legislation also will help support pregnant women and "this is the real pro-life stance."
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has already refuted that claim with his own letter opposing the bill.
And he is absolutely right. The CHA, specifically "Sister" Keehan, are very wrong to mislead Catholics into voting for a bill that will greatly expand and fund abortion.
The Archbishop of Kansas City has urged Catholics to contact key members of Congress and ask them to vote against the Senate health care reform bill. He also expressed his disappointment with the Catholic Health Association for its apparent willingness to accept government-funded abortion as part of health care reform.
Writing in The Leaven, Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann noted specific problems with the health care bill. Its $7 billion appropriations for Community Health Centers can be used directly for elective abortions. It uses federal funds to subsidize health care plans that cover abortions, thus making abortions more accessible.
The bill also uses the power of the federal government to force people to pay for other people’s abortions even if they are morally opposed to it, the archbishop wrote.
Archbishop Naumann said he was “deeply troubled” to learn that Sr. Carol Keehan, the Chief Executive for the Catholic Health Association (CHA), has urged the U.S. House of Representatives to vote for the Senate health care reform bill.
This week "Catholic" Health Association president, Sister Carol Keehan, said she and her organization are supporting the Senate version of the Health Care Reform bill, despite the expansion of abortion and other problems in it, and despite the Catholic Bishops being strongly against it. THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS ARE THE OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, NOT THE HEALTH ASSOCIATION. This stance by the CHA has given cover to some congresspeople who are voting yes and then pointing to CHA as representing the Catholic Church. They DO NOT.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann made that clear in an online column yesterday in The Leaven Catholic Newspaper that will appear in the print edition Friday. In his remarks he urged that people contact Sr. Keehan of CHA and express their disappointment, and also to be sure to call Congress!
Here is the info you need to do that:
CHA President Sr. Carol Keehan's email address is: ckeehan@chausa.org. The PH # is: (202) 296-3993.
When you email Sr. Keehan, or reach someone on the phone, don't just vent. Definitely express your disappointment, but the most persuasive thing you can do is to relate why YOU care about this issue. You may wish to share a personal story, or one about how destructive abortion is, not only to babies, but to their mothers, as well. You may also want to refer them to the Feminists for Life web site: http://www.feministsforlife.org/ or a website about post-abortion syndrome http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/.
Here is Archishop Nauman's article from The Leaven:
I was deeply troubled to learn that Sister Carol Keehan, the chief executive for the Catholic Health Association, has urged members of the House of Representatives to vote for the Senate Health Care Reform Bill. This action by the Catholic Health Association could not come at a more critical time.
As I write this article, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is promising a vote soon on health care reform, even while members of the House leadership admit they do not yet have enough votes for passage. One of the most critical groups standing in the way of passage by the House is pro-life Democrats.
The Catholic Health Association’s position, in effect, provides cover for any member of the House who chooses to buckle under the pressure of the president and the Democratic leadership to accept government funding of abortion. They can now defend themselves by pointing out that Catholic health care leaders recommended they vote for the bill.
The Catholic Health Association’s leadership took this action knowing that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops continues to urge members of the House of Representatives to vote against the Senate bill, unless a way is found to amend the bill to prohibit federal funding of abortion and provide conscience protection for health care professionals as well as health care institutions. The National Right to Life Committee, as well as every other creditable pro-life organization, recognizes that the Senate bill allows for unprecedented government funding for abortion.
Sister Keehan claims: “On the moral issue of abortion, there is no disagreement. On the technical issue of whether this bill prevents federal funding of abortions, we differ from Right to Life.”
I find this statement by Sister Keehan either incredibly naïve or disingenuous. Either the bill permits previously prohibited government funding of abortion or not. This is not a technicality.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in its analysis of the Senate
bill, identifies these specific problems with it:
1) The bill appropriates $7 billion for services at community health centers that can be used directly for elective abortions;
2) The bill uses federal funds to subsidize health plans that cover abortions. By subsidizing plans that cover abortions, the federal government will expand abortion coverage and make abortions more accessible;
3) The bill uses the power of the federal government to force Americans to pay for other people’s abortions, even if they are morally opposed to abortion.
If the Senate had wanted to prohibit federal funding for abortion, all they had to do was accept the language that had been adopted by the House of Representatives by an overwhelming majority. The Senate rejected this language.
Congressman Stupak, who authored the House language, has invited President Obama and/or the Democratic leadership to use the Hyde Amendment language or similar language in several other already-enacted bills that clearly prohibit federal funding of abortion. To date, they have refused to accept language that has been used for decades to prevent federal funding of abortion. The president and the Democratic leadership reject this tried-andtrue language protecting taxpayers from having to fund abortion, all the while claiming that they do not want to change current policy. If this is really the case, why not use the language that has proven effective?
Of course, abortion is not the only problem with the Senate bill. For instance, the bill fails to provide adequate conscience protection for health care professionals as well as institutions. One would think that the Catholic Health Association would be extremely concerned about conscience protection. However, if the Catholic Health Association is willing to compromise on government funding for abortion, then who needs conscience protection?
I do not doubt the laudable intentions of Sister Keehan and the Catholic Health Association. No doubt they want to find a way to extend health care coverage to those who are not being served or not being served well by the current system. Providers of health care see gut-wrenching examples of those that the current health care system is failing. However, it is not permissible to try to improve the quality of life for some by cooperating in the killing of the most innocent and
vulnerable members of our human family.
To believe that President Obama and/or the Senate and House leadership will correct these abortion issues at a later date is foolish. They are the ones responsible for making members of Congress accept government funding of abortion as an integral part of so-called health care reform. President Obama has gone back on many of his campaign promises, but has been scrupulously faithful in his promises to Planned Parenthood and others in the abortion industry to advance their agenda.
I urge you to contact your representative to urge him/her to vote against the Senate bill, unless someone finds a miraculous way to fix all of its problems. Moreover, although there are none in Kansas or Missouri, I encourage you to contact the members of Congress who have been identified as the critical swing votes on health care reform. These House members hold the fate of the entire nation in their hands. They need to hear from Americans throughout the country.
Finally, I encourage you to contact Sister Keehan and the Catholic Health Association expressing to them your disappointment in their willingness to accept government-funded abortion as part of health care reform.
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