Salon - "Catholic healthcare scoreboard: Nuns and laity 2, bishops 0"

[TomCADem]

Catholic nuns can hardly be considered pro-choice, but even they understand that a true "pro-life" view would support HCR, rather than insist that no effort be made to address lack of health coverage for millions of Americans unless abortion is outlawed. The Roman Catholic hierarchy once again turns its back on the needs of its followers.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/story/?story=/news/feature/2010/03/21/nuns_2_bishops_0

The healthcare reform debate in Congress has brought to the fore a sharp division within the Catholic Church. The lines are drawn by gender: Catholic bishops focused on the unborn on one side; Catholic nuns advocating for the already-born on the other.

The bishops have opposed President Obama’s healthcare reform plan on the grounds that it does too little to guard against public money being used for abortion. But the nuns have taken a broader view and backed the plan.

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Many nuns feel they have little to lose in challenging bishops because they have been treated so shabbily by their hierarchy. Many of America's nuns supporting Obama's healthcare initiative were, until recently, among the "uninsured" that the bill addresses. Only in the past two decades have US bishops taken up an annual collection to pay for basic health insurance for nuns, and for their decades of unpaid Social Security.

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But the prospect of national reform prompted anti-choice extremists to demand that no tax dollars be used for health insurance plans that cover abortion for those who wish to use it. Nuns replied that a true pro-life view focuses on the millions of uninsured men, women and children who will be saved under a national plan.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Michigan) has led the pack of Catholic lawmakers looking for ever-tighter abortion restrictions. After a prolonged holdout, he announced his support for the Obama plan on Sunday after the president agreed to issue an executive order clarifying that the Hyde Act (which bans federal funding of abortions) applies to the new law.