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Church launches grassroots campaign to fight government support of abortion
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Lawmakers aren’t listening to the majority of Americans who adamantly oppose a government run health care system. They aren’t listening to Catholic concerns about health care reform either. Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats have not unveiled anything new. They’ve just repackaged the old plan, and are desperately trying to resell it to you this month.
The main concern for Catholics is the issue of abortion. The plan still would allow government to provide easy access to abortions and require taxpayers, including Christians who are against abortion, to pay for them.
As a result, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is launching its grassroots effort to fight this type of Washington reform. The campaign is set to mobilize the faithful across the country through church bulletin inserts, fliers, prayer petitions, pulpit announcements and web-based ads.
Catholic bishops have been calling for health care reform for years. Saying that “Catholic moral tradition teaches that health care is a basic human right, essential to protecting human life and dignity,” the bishops cite the numerous Catholic emergency rooms, shelters, clinics, and charities that “pick up the pieces of a failing health care system.”
“Though health care reform is desperately needed, the U.S. bishops’ conference has concluded that all committee approved bills are seriously deficient on the issues of abortion and conscience, and do not provide adequate access to health care for immigrants and the poor,” CNA reported today.
If these issues go unaddressed, the bishops have pledged to vigorously oppose the current reforms.
Despite presidential and congressional assurances that abortions will not be funded by taxpayer money in the proposed health care reform bills, none of the proposed bills have such restrictions.
The USCCB is urging Catholics to contact the Senate and ask that they listen and “support the Stupak Amendment that addresses essential pro-life concerns on abortion funding and conscience rights in the health care reform bill.”
The Stupak amendment is worded similarly to the Hyde Amendment, which has “kept federal funding from going to abortions, as well as provided conscience protections to health care professionals.”
The USCCB has also released a banner ad which can be posted to individual websites to encourage visitors to take action and support health care reform that respects life.
More information about the grassroots campaign can be found at: http://www.usccb.org/healthcare/official_documents.shtml#alerts
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