Sunday 14 March 2010

Supporting Healthcare Reform Is Pro-Life

Richard Lowery writes:

I write as a minister and Bible teacher to urge pro-life members of Congress to vote for health insurance reform.

A recent study estimates that 45,000 Americans die each year because they don’t have health insurance. That figure does not count the number of pregnancies that end in miscarriage or the number of children born with life-threatening conditions because the mother lacks access to prenatal care. According to the 2009 CIA World Fact Book, the United States ranks dead last among industrialized countries in infant mortality rates. We are just behind Guam, Cuba, Italy, and the Isle of Man.

Thousands of children die at birth every year because their mothers can’t get health care. This is a moral outrage for the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth.

We can end this slaughter of the innocents.

The health-care bill before Congress will cover 31 million people who do not currently have insurance.

I’ve heard that some of you may not vote for this bill because it’s not as restrictive on abortion as the earlier House bill was.

I’ve read the pertinent section of the Senate bill (Section 1303. Special Rules) very carefully. It explicitly bans federal funding of abortion and requires people who want insurance that covers abortion to pay for that additional coverage out of their own pockets. Insurance companies even have to keep abortion insurance payments separate so they don’t “mingle” with federal funds they receive for other things.

Faith-based soup kitchens know how to “segregate” public money from funds used for religious purposes to keep from violating the constitutional separation of church and state. Insurance companies can do the same to respect the ban on federal money for abortion. This is not rocket science.

State laws that require parental notification or restrict late-term abortions are preserved by this bill. Hospitals and doctors who refuse, for moral reasons, to provide abortion services are explicitly protected, and hundreds of millions of dollars are provided to support prenatal and infant care for pregnant teens and college students. More than a billion dollars is set aside to support adoptions.

On abortion, this bill keeps the legal status quo and actually makes it easier for women to choose to carry their pregnancies to full term.

The bill is not perfect, but it will save the lives of tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of Americans every year — born and not-yet-born. This is the time for moral courage, not political calculation. “Yes” is the pro-life vote.

But it must serve the Common Good, not the profits of the insurance companies:

Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, Sojourners, the Religious Action Center for Reformed Judaism and over two dozen Catholic theologians sent a letter to President Obama and Congressional leadership today making the case that the time to act is now.

“Human beings are suffering as a result of skyrocketing health care costs, ever-escalating premiums, and draconian choices between paying the rent and taking a sick child to the doctor,” the letter reads. “This is not hyperbole or rhetoric. This is the shameful reality today for millions of American families, senior citizens and children.”

The letter is signed by Morna Murray, President of Catholics in Alliance; Jim Wallis, President and CEO of Sojourners; Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and Joel Hunter, an influential megachurch pastor in Orlando.

‘The Gospel does not call us to protect profit margins of insurance companies or drug manufacturers,” said Morna Murray, President of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. “Our faith is clear in its unequivocal and often countercultural call to care for the sick, the poor, and the most vulnerable.”

Comprehensive health reform will make insurance more affordable for low-income and middle class Americans, end insurance practices such as discriminating against individuals with pre-existing conditions and strengthen our economy by reducing the deficit. In particular, Catholics and other people of faith recognize healthcare reform is essential for advancing a consistent ethic of life. Senate legislation to be discussed at the healthcare summit prohibits federal funding of abortion and includes core provisions of the Pregnant Women Support Act that will help reduce abortions by ensuring women have the support they need.

Faith-based organizations have played an important role over the past year promoting healthcare reform as an urgent moral priority and practical necessity. Catholics in Alliance launched Voices for Health Reform, a campaign to collect the personal experiences of families struggling with a broken healthcare system and delivered them to members of Congress. The Alliance also partnered with Faith in Public Life, Sojourners, PICO National Network and other faith-based organizations as part of a 40 Days for Health Reform initiative last summer that culminated with a national conference call with religious leaders and President Obama. Over 300,000 people took part in this event.

“Sincere and substantive efforts have been made to seek bipartisan support and sensible policies are on the table,” said Murray. “While legislative efforts to redress longstanding injustices have historically been difficult, we call on all members of Congress to step outside the partisan mindset in Washington. In the real world, children and families are suffering. It is shameful that some public officials are using this debate for partisan posturing. This is not about power politics. It’s about the critical need to reform a broken system that is harming Americans.”

The complete text of the letter follows:

Dear Mr. President, Mr. Leader, Senator McConnell, Madam Speaker and Representative Boehner:

For many months our country has been engaged in a fierce debate about health care and the need to make it more affordable and accessible to all citizens. As faith leaders, we ask with great urgency that you complete this task now.

We know you hear from your constituents and advocates on both sides of this issue. This has become a partisan and polarized debate. However, anything that obscures the real human suffering that is at the root of this emergency is detrimental to the American people. We applaud efforts by the President and other leaders to transcend politics as usual and solve this problem. Regardless of the political rhetoric, there are facts that clearly demonstrate the necessity, both economically and morally, of passing health care reform.

As the health care reform summit approaches, we ask that you remember this crisis is not about doing what is best for Democrats or Republicans. This must be about living up to our highest ideals as a nation and serving the common good. Human beings are suffering as a result of skyrocketing health care costs, ever-escalating premiums, and draconian choices between paying the rent and taking a sick child to the doctor. This is not hyperbole or rhetoric. This is the shameful reality today for millions of American families, senior citizens and children. The argument that this cannot be done in the midst of an economic recession simply does not hold true and, in fact, our current economic downturn makes health care reform even more critical.

Again, we urge you, as the President and Congressional leaders of our country, to turn away from partisan politics and solve this problem now. It is within your power to do so. We ask you, in faith and solidarity with those suffering in this country, to do what is necessary for the American people and reform our broken health care system.

There follows the list of signatories.

A public option effectively making all healthcare provision federally funded, together with a reassertion and strengthening of the ban on federal funding of abortion: that is the House Bill, PelosiCare as passed, and together with the Pregnant Women Support Act by far the most pro-life move in America at least since a Democratic Congress passed the Hyde Amendment and a Democratic President signed it into law.

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