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Published: November 12, 2009

“Who elected them to Congress?”

Abortion advocates target Catholic bishops over role in healthcare bill

Now that the U.S. House has narrowly approved a national healthcare bill, abortion advocates are taking aim at Catholic bishops and seeking to exact political retribution on pro-life legislators who insisted on a provision banning federal abortion funding as a condition of their support.

In an item published Nov. 9 by Politico.com under the heading “IRS should scrutinize bishops,” Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-San Rafael, asks of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Who elected them to Congress?” and suggests the Church’s tax-exempt status should be reviewed. Woolsey said the bishops’ support of the Stupak amendment “was more than mere advocacy” and said the bishops “managed to bully members of Congress to vote for added restrictions on a perfectly legal surgical procedure.”

The Sacramento Bee reported on Nov. 11 that former state legislator Deborah Ortiz, a pro-abortion Democrat from Sacramento who now works as vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, had written a letter “expressing dismay” to two of three Democrats from California who voted for the abortion-funding restrictions. Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, headquartered in San Jose, operates 33 clinics and 23 “satellite sites” in 40 counties in California and northern Nevada. According to its fiscal year 2009 annual report, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte performed 15,395 abortions and had a budget of just over $81 million. Of that, more than 87% came from government sources.

Ortiz, said the Bee, sent a Nov. 9 letter to Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, both of whom voted for the Stupak Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortion as part of the healthcare bill. (Also voting for the amendment was Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino.) In the letter, Ortiz asked Cardoza and Costa to explain their votes.

"Given our long friendship and history of working on behalf of those who have little to no access to health care, I welcome an explanation of your vote," said the letter according to the Bee. "Absent an explanation, I can only assume that the decision was a political rather than a policy decision."

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, took direct aim at Catholic bishops in a statement “condemning” the House’s passage of the Stupak Amendment. “It is extremely unfortunate that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and anti-choice opponents were able to hijack the health care reform bill in their dedicated attempt to ban all legal abortion in the United States,” said Richards’ statement, calling the pro-life position an “extreme, ideological agenda.” Richards said that “Planned Parenthood will work with its allies in the Senate to ensure that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and those who oppose abortion do not once again hijack the legislative process in their ongoing campaign to make abortion illegal.”

In an email alert sent to Planned Parenthood backers across the country, the abortion giant said, “We're urging you to make your voice heard and tell President Obama to live up to his campaign commitment and stand with us to protect women's health today and every single day until real reform is passed.”

NARAL-Pro-Choice America (formerly called the National Abortion Rights Action League) also issued a statement promising to marshal pro-abortion forces as the healthcare bill is taken up in the Senate. “Nancy Keenan , president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, called House passage of a stunning last-minute anti-choice amendment to health reform an outrageous blow to women's freedom and privacy -- and she vowed to fight to remove this provision as the process goes to the Senate,” said a statement issued by NARAL.

In the meantime, the Associated Press moved a story published in newspapers across the country under the heading, “The Influence Game: Bishops shape health care bill.” Among other things, the AP story reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, telephoned Rome to speak with former Washington, D.C., Archbishop Theodore McCarrick on Friday, Nov. 6, the day before the House narrowly approved the Stupak Amendment. Cardinal McCarrick served as Archbishop of Washington from 2001-2006.

“Catholic bishops have emerged as a formidable force in the health care overhaul fight, using their clout with millions of Catholics and working behind the scenes in Congress to get strong abortion restrictions into the House bill,” said the AP. “They don't spend a dime on what is legally defined as lobbying, but lawmakers and insiders recognize that the bishops' voices matter -- and they move votes. Representatives for the bishops were in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Capitol suite negotiating with top officials last Friday evening as they reached final terms of the agreement. Earlier in the day, Pelosi, a Catholic and an abortion rights supporter, had been on the phone to Rome with Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, Washington's former archbishop, on the subject.”

According to the AP, Boston Archbishop Cardinal Sean O'Malley made a private appeal to President Barack Obama on federal abortion funding “near the church altar at the early September funeral for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.” The AP also said that bishops across the U.S. “quietly called their congressmen and senators to weigh in.”

The intervention of the Church in the healthcare debate left pro-abortion forces “fuming,” said the AP, quoting Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority saying, “They (the bishops) dictated this, and it's totally inappropriate -- it's blatant interference between church and state.”

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