Heathcare Reform Sidelines Key Supporters

Kathy Saile, Director of Domestic Social Development for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, explains the importance of health care reform for the U.S. Bishops and why the bishops insist that the legislation not federally fund abortion.

Here is Kathy explaining again the importance of health care reform to the Catholic sense of human dignity and the contradiction that tax funding of abortion presents to that same ideal.

Had this issue been addressed in the Senate health care bill I think the president would have had a bill on his desk last year simply because a major block of his support for health care reform (Catholics and Pro Life Liberals) would have been working full time for it rather than dividing our effort in order to resist using health care reform to use tax dollars to fund abortion providers , create an economic incentive to increase the use of abortion and to attempt force heath care professional to violate their consciences.

Since the president had made many of us optimistic by his campaign messages about finding common ground, serving the common good and reducing abortions, it is puzzling why he seems to have done nothing about them. Had he simply called the Senate leadership and said "lets accept the amendment already passed in the House and we will have a bill that has much wider support" he would have honored these positions that made him such an appealing candidate to many Washington weary Americans.

However, he had been quite clear from his writings that he accepted significant funding from the abortion lobby but would refuse funding from me and millions of others who support human rights. One has to wonder how much of the old Washington culture has crept into this administration.

The old Washington, that Washington that American citizens are fed up with, requires politicians to give priority to the interests of those institutions and businesses that had bankrolled his or her campaign rather than the the interest of those who elected him or her. I don't know who or how the silence from the White House was motivated but I do know that had the President acted bravely and quickly he would have greatly re inflated our hopes for an administration that might really change Washington.

In a few short days we will see if we can pull reform out of the hat despite this hang over of "old Washington" that has delayed critical reforms that protect the health of all Americans and begin to reign in health care costs.