It’s the hottest of topics in the realm of Catholics and public policy: What, on the surface, seems to be the only good thing about the health care bill barely passed by the U.S. House of Representatives Saturday night, was the Stupak Amendment, offered by Representative Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) It upholds the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding of abortion, and explicitly denies any part of the health care bill from mandating insurance companies cover abortion services or compromises medical professionals conscience protections.
However, by passing the amendment and adding it to the bill, it made a horrible bill — which still violates Catholic teaching by eliminating health care to elderly and sickly people by rationing it and denying access to it — more palatable to certain members of the House, and was enough for them to vote in favor of the bill as a whole. Not only that, but certain radical feminists in Congress are not unhappy that the Stupak Amendment moved the bill forward to the Senate, where they are hopeful it will eventually get stripped out and eventually approved by the House after a conference report. So says U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the House’s chief deputy Democrat whip (see Life Site News).
On the other hand, as Matt Bowman of CatholicVote.org writes, passing the Stupak Amendment ultimately will make the bill distasteful for the abortion-on-demand crowd and force them to abandon ship.
So, a lot remains to be seen — and done. If you are concerned, and we all should be, it is not a time to relax under a false pretense, nor throw in the towel in frustration. Contact your senators and carry on the good fight.
