Catholic Charities, Vincent de Paul Society Supporting Abortion-providing Health

[littlepaddle]

http://www.prolifeblogs.com/

July 29, 2009 Catholic Charities, Vincent de Paul Society Supporting Abortion-providing Health Care Plan
Washington, DC (29 July 2009) -

Three of the top lay Catholic organizations have divorced themselves from Catholic teaching by supporting the Obama health-care plan, which would foster a culture of mandatory abortion coverage, contraceptive services, and permissive sex education, euthanasia and eugenics.

Catholic Charities USA, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the Catholic Health Association are joining together to push the current version of the plan through Congress.

"There is no social justice in rationing charity," said Judie Brown, president of American Life League. "Millions of taxpayers will be forced to subsidize abortion, contraception, euthanasia and bureaucratic denial of health care to the poorest of the poor."

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul and Catholic Charities USA sent out an action alert asking members to contact their legislators immediately:

We must maintain momentum for health care reform efforts with calls and emails supporting health care reform immediately. ... Your members of Congress need to hear from you that you support health care reform, and that the system needs to be reformed now.

The Catholic Health Association put together a YouTube video showing people displaying messages such as "I can't wait for health-care reform" and "We can't wait until the signing ceremony."

"All these organizations claim to be faithful to Catholic social teaching - which unambiguously and passionately puts respect for human personhood at the core of all other social and charitable works," Brown pointed out. "Yet these same organizations are undermining the very foundation they exist to protect and foster: the dignity of human persons and the sanctity of their right to life."

American Life League was cofounded in 1979 by Judie Brown. It is the largest grassroots Catholic pro-life organization in the United States and is committed to the protection of all innocent human beings from the moment of creation to natural death. For more information or press inquiries, please contact Katie Walker at 540.659.4942.


FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Catholic Health Association: I Can't Wait ... For Health Reform
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYnhuSd6Uiw

Catholic Charities USA: Study Sheds Light on Role of Abortion Drug (16 June 2008)
http://capwiz.com/catholiccharitiesusa/issues/alert/?alertid=13746156

Society of St. Vincent de Paul: Link to Catholic Health Association YouTube
http://www.svdpusa.org/VoiceofthePoor/tabid/167/ItemId/164/language/en-US/Default.aspx

By admin July 29, 2009 12:55 PM | 3 Comments

[devotedknuckles]

WOW!

[epalinurus]

Catholic Charities has been a disgrace for a long time.  No doubt you remember the abortion procured by Richmond (VA) Catholic Charities about a year ago?

http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=28322

Not surprisingly, its "Alert" essentially ignores the importance of protecting unborn life, too, and does not even mention abortion.  The only vague reference is the mention of its desire for coverage of "health needs at all stages of life, from conception to natural death."  The proposed letter CC offers readers to use in writing Congress to SUPPORT reform (apparently any kind of "reform" is good enough to support, as long as it is broad enough -- regardless of cost, effect, or abortion funding) contains NO mention of abortion.  This would be the perfect vehicle to state opposition to abortion funding, but it fails to even imply a threat of opposition to the measure if abortion funding is included.

Sadly, given the relationship between Catholic Charities and the bishops, this raises the question of whether, really, the American bishops will oppose, beyond a bit of perfunctory scolding, a health care plan that covers abortion.  It gets so demoralizing sometimes.

[alaric]

What is it with these Catholic Institutions selling their souls to this false messiah Obama. First Notre Dame, now this. We wonder why the Church loses face and members to evangelical prots and the muzzies worldwide.

They are pathetic representatives of the one and only true "church" who leap at the chance to sell it out for a buck, even in the case of supporting infanticide.

I predict that CC will one day reap what it sows and will be selected for extinction or, lack of a better word, "terminated", like the fate of  millions of pregnancies under the godking Obama's plan.

[Baskerville]

And what will the Bishops say about this or the Pope? Nothing it'll pass by just as long as the Vatican keeps getting money in the collection plates because that is all that matters to them.

[moneil]

How about some perspective?

First, there is NO health care reform bill or plan - Congress is still working on that.  We don't know what the final proposal will look like.  For a group to say that there is a bill "which would foster a culture of mandatory abortion coverage, contraceptive services, and permissive sex education, euthanasia and eugenics" is nothing short of dishonesty.

Second, I would assume that almost all the private health plans that people here have (for those lucky enough to be covered by a health plan at work) at least cover contraceptive services, if not abortion coverage (many might be surprised at what all is covered, and is not, in their policies, if you start reading the fine print).  Every time any of us purchases a product or service from the company you work for, part of our money goes to pay the cost of that coverage.  Maybe everybody should list who they work for, and what private company their health insurance is purchased from, so we can boycott  .

Third, here is a notice from this week's (Sunday August 2, 2009) Sacred Heart Parish, Pullman, WA (Diocese of Spokane) bulletin:
Jeremy Eaton, a 17-year-old graduate of St. Mary’s Catholic School in Moscow , has been stricken with an extremely serious and rare motor neuron disease. His family is in great need of assistance with medical bills for his present and upcoming necessities. ANY amount you could donate would be greatly appreciated. A fund has been set up in his name at Sterling Savings Bank at 609 S Washington St. Suite 204 in Moscow . Donations may be mailed in or dropped off. Thank you!  http://mysite.verizon.net/sacredheartpullman

I wonder how many "pro-life blog" people are going to contribute to this?  Or, what their solution to this situation is?  There are millions of people like this: the unemployed, working people who don't get health care coverage through work, wage earners who do get coverage through work but can't afford to pay the additional premiums to include their spouse and children (easily over $1,000 per month for a family of 4).

Our St. Vincent de Paul Society's work with these people EVERY DAY.  Real human beings, real faces, real lives - and we tragically know that some of these people will die, or be unable to provide for their families because of disabilities, because they don't have access to health care.  The action alert said: We must maintain momentum for health care reform efforts with calls and emails supporting health care reform immediately. ... Your members of Congress need to hear from you that you support health care reform, and that the system needs to be reformed now.  I know my eye sight isn't as good as it use to be, but I read the sentence several times, and I don't see any support for an abortion providing health care plan here.   

The paragraph from the blog that really got me was the following:

"There is no social justice in rationing charity," said Judie Brown, president of American Life League. "Millions of taxpayers will be forced to subsidize abortion, contraception, euthanasia and bureaucratic denial of health care to the poorest of the poor.

There are several ironies here.  We don't know if these "services" will be included in any bill eventually passed.  We do know that whenever we purchase a product or service from a company that currently provides private health insurance to their employees we are likely subsidizing many or all of these "services".  Likewise if one doesn't have a Catholic hospital (yes, I know some have reported issues there to, but the odds are better for them getting it right) and one has to go to a public hospital or a private sector for-profit hospital (which are the worst in this area, and many "non-profit" hospitals are actually managed under contract by a for-profit corporation).  "....denial of health care to the poorest of the poor"?  What do you think is happening now?

Certainly we don't want a plan that is morally objectionable, and we have the opportunity to make our Catholic voices heard in this area, an opportunity we generally don't usually have in trying to influence the private for-profit sector.  Well, one could say "I'm going to stay here on the side walk and die from my heart attack, rather than go to the hospital, becuse they also provide objectionable services", but I doubt many are willing to do that.

[epalinurus]

You want perspective?  Here's perspective.  The Democrats control both houses of Congress.  Most Democrats don't just favor "abortion rights", they love abortion.  They think it is a moral good that fosters "gender equality."  These proaborts are in the pocket of pro abortion groups.  They are OWNED by pro abortion groups.  They want abortion -- unrestricted -- and they want YOU to pay for it.  It's been in every proposal that Democrats have tried to push out of committee and onto the respective floors of Congress.

Here's a story re the House bill, eg: http://www.lifenews.com/nat5154.html

Obama wants it too.  http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09072004.html

Now -- not when the proaborts have their votes all lined up and have a head of steam of support for all the mushy feel good socialized single payer health care systems that pseudo Catholics like Catholic Charities support -- now is the time to expose this and make clear that NO bill gets support from the Catholic Church in America if it even has a whiff of taxpayer funding of abortions. 

There are a lot of non-abortion-related reasons to oppose these liberal bills, too, most related to giving control of the system to bureaucrats, jacking up the cost, increasing taxes on everyone, reducing the quality of healthcare, rationing, etc.   These don't even get to abortion.  You think you don't have enough say over private health insurers, wait until you see how responsive the bureaucrats are.  Picture an entity that combines the worst traits of the IRS and the Postal Service.

Catholics and the bishops -- please God, the bishops -- need to make clear NOW that we will work to torpedo any health care bill that works any of the above injustices AND funds or potentially funds abortion. 

I swear, a combination of Catholic Charity phony Catholics, naive love and flowers Catholics, politically liberal bishops will be the death of true Catholic Church teaching-based political influence in this country.

ps -- from yesterday -- the House bill approved by the committee STILL includes abortion....see http://ncronline.org/news/justice/house-panel-rejects-abortion-ban-health-reform.  So Catholic Charities, St V Depaul and Co.  have something to aim at, if they are really serious about Catholic teaching on abortion.   They aren't.   They're caving. 

edited to add postscript