PCUSA joins pro-abortion
lobby in health care debate
The Layman, December 8, 2009
At the same time it’s calling on Presbyterians to rally behind health care reform, the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Washington Office continues to fight efforts to remove abortion coverage and funding from that reform.
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PCUSA advocacy for abortion
coverage won’t stop until
we change policy
On Capitol Hill Tuesday, the U.S. Senate rejected the Nelson-Hatch Amendment, which would have restricted the use of federal funds for abortions. The action came on a 54-45 vote to table the amendment, which mirrored an amendment passed in the House of Representatives 290-194 in November that removed abortion funding from its version of the health care reform bill.
Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, introduced the amendment Dec. 7 and its denial could be a key sticking point in the Senate’s $848 billion health care bill. Several senators from both parties signed on in support of the amendment. The Senate needs 60 votes to pass its health care bill without the threat of a filibuster.
PCUSA, through its Washington Office, has lent its voice to the debate by joining other denominations and the pro-choice lobby in signing a letter opposing the Nelson-Hatch amendment. Other supporters included the Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations and Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
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The letter argues that restricting abortion coverage would be a contradiction of the principle of health care reform.
“We believe that it is our social and moral obligation to ensure access to high quality comprehensive health care services at every stage in an individual’s life,” the letter states. “The use of this legislation to advance new restrictions on abortion services that surpass those in current law will serve only to derail this important bill.”
The PCUSA Washington Office also signed a letter in November making the same plea before the House’s Stupak-Pitts amendment vote.
While the PCUSA Washington Office is joined pro-abortion efforts to defeat the amendment, pro-life groups like the Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List still are mobilizing support. SBA, whose president is a signer of the Manhattan Declaration, is calling on Americans to draw a line in the sand, no matter the cost.
“During today’s vote on the Nelson Amendment, Americans will be watching the actions of self-described pro-life senators and senators from pro-life states,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA. “Despite claims by abortion advocates, there is no middle ground on this issue – either you fund abortion or you don’t. There is no room for compromise when human life is at stake. Americans – women included – reject the radical feminist vision of an abortion for every home, at government expense.”
In its Nov. 30 Witness in Washington e-mail, the PCUSA Washington Office encouraged Presbyterians to “Let Our Light Shine for Health Care For All” through candlelight vigils and services of remembrance on Dec. 8. The e-mail cited statistics from the American Journal of Public Health that estimates nearly 45,000 deaths annually due to a lack of health care. There is no mention of protecting abortion funding or the current number of aborted babies each year in the United States. National Right to Life estimates more than 1.2 million abortions in 2005 and more than 49.5 million abortions since 1973, when Roe vs. Wade made it legal.
The Witness in Washington also encourages including the health care reform issue in Sunday worship’s sermon, prayer, litany or candle lighting; organizing a prayer vigil or breakfast; and adding a focus on health care reform to an existing or ongoing event. The e-mail also included a candlelight vigil planning and media tool kits to help lobby for the health care proposals. The tool kits include sample editorial letters and columns, event planning suggestions and statistics that support the pro-universal health care position.
The “Let Our Light Shine” effort was organized by the interfaith coalition Faithful Reform in Health Care.
PCUSA has been a vocal supporter of President Barack Obama’s proposals on health care reform, including a statement calling for a single-payer universal health care system in August by Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons. That statement was based on the 218th General Assembly’s endorsement, which called a single payer universal system a “moral imperative of the Gospel” and tabbed $25,000 in mission funding for seminars that lobby for such a system.
Opposition to the pro-life Nelson-Hatch and Stupak-Pitts amendments is not the first time PCUSA has made pro-abortion statements. In the ’90s, the denomination adopted a controversial position stating: “The considered decision of a woman to terminate a pregnancy can be a morally acceptable, though certainly not the only or required, decision.”
This story has been updated with new information since it was posted on Dec. 8, 2009.