Deal Says the USCCB Had to Keep Stupak on Task

From tomorrow's New York Times comes a story by Jodi Kantor about Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI).

It contains the following very interesting tidbit:

Mr. Stupak says he urged the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to toughen its stance on the legislation; representatives from the conference and the National Right to Life Committee did not return calls

The parenthesis are from the original story. Why are they there? Perhaps Kantor did not know what a bombshell this statement from Stupak would be among many Catholics.

It makes you wonder what Stupak thought the USCCB should be tougher about? The abortion issue? Or abortion and other issues as well? And did Stupak mean the USCCB should be tougher behind the scenes or in the public eye?

But if Stupak feels he is hanging tougher than the USCCB then how do you make sense of all those stories about lobbyists from the USCCB keeping Stupak on message?

Certainly the USCCB has studiously avoided a tough public stance, preferring not to risk their internal negotiating position.

I wish Kantor explored Stupak's meaning here -- perhaps Stupak went off the record at this point, and Kantor had to call the USCCB and National Right to Life for comment.

That the USCCB did not return her call is surprising given the prominence of the NYT and the importance of the issue raised by Stupak.

Link to original Inside Catholic...

Catholic Hospitals and Church Split over Abortion Coverage

As Catholic Schools don't teach much in the way of Catholicism, so Catholic Hospitals are not very consistent in following Catholic moral teaching with regard to abortion. It's unfortunate enough that liberals, getting it wrong as they often do, fail to understand the issue outside of their quest to justify sexual license and personal "liberty" that the consequences of the normalization of this situation is higher than they understand.

As those who have been following the congressional health care bill know, the Catholic Church has played a significant role, expressing its disapproval mostly over federal funding for coverage of abortion procedures. The Church backed the House's Stupak Amendment, which "bars a new government-run insurance plan from covering abortions, except in cases or rape, incest or the life of the mother being in danger, and prohibits any health plan that receives federal subsidies in a new insurance marketplace from offering abortion coverage," and has expressed dismay at the new compromises over abortion in the Senate (ones which, ironically, pro-choice advocates are not happy with either).

From the New York Times, the new provisions allow "any state to bar the use of federal subsidies for insurance plans that cover abortion and requires insurers in other states to divide subsidy money into separate accounts so that only dollars from private premiums would be used to pay for abortions." This makes it difficult, bureaucratic, and certainly not desirable for insurance companies to cover abortions - but it still does not ban abortion coverage completely.

Link to original...

Catholic Church pushes Bill in House, Chapels.

Abortion rights supporters say that Bishops don't speak for the majority of Catholics, but this article says that 68% of Catholic actually support the Stupak Amendment. The author of the following article says that the US Bishops have reached out in a very definitive way on the issue of abortion, more than would have been possible for various pro-life groups.

Boston Herald

WASHINGTON — For weeks, the Catholic Church has asked its parishioners to work toward ensuring tough language restricting federal funding of abortion is included in the federal health care overhaul.

The church has gone so far as to insert a prayer into the weekly bulletins in the pews of its dioceses across the country, one that implores Congress to "act to ensure that needed health care reform will truly protect the life, dignity and health care of all."

But while the church is trying to rally its forces outside of Congress, it is also using its leverage within.

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