Catholic Magazine Endorses Health Care Reform: ‘No Abortion Funding In The Bill’

Queen of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Wea, KS.
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The National Catholic Reporter today endorsed the Democrats’ health care reform legislation, another signal to pro-life Democrats that they are free to back the bill on Sunday. “Congress, and its Catholics, should say yes to health care reform,” the magazine editorialized today.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs posted the editorial on his Twitter feed, calling it “another very important health care development.” The editors wrote that the debate has gotten “nasty” but insisted that pro-life Democrats have nothing to worry about.

“Bottom line: The current legislation is not ‘pro-abortion,’ and there is no, repeat no, federal funding of abortion in the bill,” National Catholic Reporter wrote. “In any event, what is being debated is not the morality of abortion but the politics of abortion, and there is plenty of room for honest and respectful disagreement among Catholics about politics.”

For several days as House leaders attempt to pull enough prolife Democrats into the fold to reach the needed votes to pass health care reform, we’ve been tracking the discussions between Catholic leaders, the White House and Democratic leadership. Brian has good details here and Gibbs said Obama had some face to face meetings with Catholic leaders.

Sister Carol Keehan of the Catholic Health Association met this week with Obama and “he was effusive about her support and about her as a person for making the courageous statements that she has,” Gibbs said. Keehan endorsed the legislation.

The National Catholic Reporter editorial mostly focused on the merits of the legislation. “[T]he choice Congress faces is between the status quo and change — and the current bill is a profoundly preferable step in the direction of positive change,” they editorialized.

The editors wrote:

There are, to be sure, grave problems with the bill the House will consider in the next few days. It maintains the squirrelly system of employer-based health care coverage that impedes cost reduction. Its treatment of undocumented workers is shameful. It is unnecessarily complicated, even Byzantine, in some of its provisions. It falls short of providing true universal coverage.

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