On Health Care, Listen to the Nuns
Posted on Mar 17, 2010
By E.J. Dionne
One of the tragedies of the viciously politicized battle over health care reform is the defection of the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops from a cause they have championed for decades.
Indifferent to political fashions, the bishops were the strongest voices in support of universal health coverage, a position rooted in Catholic social thought that calls for a special solicitude toward the poor.
Yet on the make-or-break roll call that will determine the fate of health care reform, bishops are urging that the bill be voted down. They are doing so on the basis of a highly tendentious reading of the abortion provisions in the Senate measure.
If health reform is defeated, the bishops will have played a major role in its demise.snip//
On Wednesday, a group representing 59,000 Catholic nuns plus more than 50 heads of religious congregations issued a strong statement urging “a life-affirming ‘yes’ vote” in support of the Senate bill. “While it is an imperfect measure, it is a crucial next step in realizing health care for all,” the statement said, adding that the bill’s support for pregnant women represented “the real pro-life stance.”
“We as sisters focus on the needs of people,” said Sister Simone Campbell, a spokeswoman for the group. “When people are suffering, we respond.”
No one was more troubled by the bishops’ decision than Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association (CHA). She loyally refuses to criticize the bishops but argues that their interpretation of the abortion language is simply wrong. She, too, released a forceful statement in support of the Senate bill.
“We looked at the bill. We spent a lot of time with Sens. Casey and Nelson,” she said in an interview. “We agreed to support it because we believe it meets the test of no federal funding for abortion. Perhaps the language is not the way I would write it, but it meets the test. ... I was not going to take a little bit of abortion {in the bill} to get federal funding.”
She added: “I can’t walk away from extending coverage to more than 30 million people.”more...
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/on_health_care_listen_to_the_nuns_20100317/
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