Health Care Reform Passes: Catholic Democrat Bart Stupak Protects Life

By Deacon Keith Fournier
11/8/2009
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Saturday night in two historic votes the importance of faithful Catholics in both major political parties became crystal clear.

Prior to the Stupak/Pitts Amendment, the funding of abortion would have occurred through both the so called 'Public Option' and through what are called 'affordability credits' which are to be given to certain health care consumers in order to purchase insurance. It was, as many including this writer pointed out, a 'shell game'.

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Washington, D.C. (Catholic Online) � In a November 19, 2008 article in his always interesting �Inside Catholic�, my friend Deal Hudson, Ph.D., properly praised then candidate Joseph Cao who was running for the 2d District Congressional seat in Louisiana. The article was entitled �The Jesuits Produce a Great Political Candidate� and it noted: �Joseph Cao is a Catholic lawyer and former Jesuit scholastic from New Orleans� Few candidates for public office are as forthright as Cao when asked about their position on abortion. �I am very anti-abortion,� he told me without hesitation. Cao would like to overturn Roe, but in the meantime, �We have to find a way to defeat Roe without having to overturn it.� His solid pro-life credentials are attested to by the endorsement of the FRC Action PAC, among others.�

Saturday night, in two historic votes, the importance of faithful Catholics in both major political parties became crystal clear. I am sure my friend Deal Hudson is surprised at now Congressman Cao�s decision to break ranks and become the only Republican to support the passage of the House version of "Health Care Reform". This occurred only AFTER the Bill was amended to remove what Was contained within its scheme, a clear authorization of Federal Funds to kill children in the womb through Abortion. I am not surprised. I may not agree with him because I have other concerns about the legislation, but I understand and respect his decision. After all, in the very same interview cited above, then candidate Cao gave Dr. Hudson an indication of his views concerning how he would approach his public service in these words: �I went all over the world to work with the poor and experienced a crisis of faith in Mexico over human suffering and God. I asked my spiritual director, �What is God doing about all this suffering?� He told me that �God sends people to help.� That was when I began to realize my calling was politics.�

First, let there be no more wrangling about the facts. The Bill as proposed by Nancy Pelosi - an unfaithful Catholic who should be ashamed and strongly opposed in her next campaign while we all pray for her return to the truth - promoted the intrinsic evil of abortion. It would have funded the feticide of our first neighbors in the womb. End of discussion. All of those folks who tried to argue that all of us who sounded the alarm over this evil were wrong have been exposed as frauds. The phony compromises and fake amendments were a subterfuge.

Before the determined and courageous efforts of Congressman Bart Stupak, a Pro-Life Catholic Democrat whose name along with Republican Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania of the 16th District of Pennsylvania is on the now historic amendment, the legislation would have funded more abortions with tax dollars. The �Health Care Reform� legislation which passed last night as HR 3962 - by a vote in the House of Representatives by a vote of 220 � 215 - would have had a lethal effect, resulting in the intentional killing of potentially millions more of our first neighbors. Thank God for the courage and perseverance of faithful Catholic Democrat Bart Stupak!

The Stupak/Pitts Amendment was strongly supported by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops who worked with admirable persistence and courageous clarity in order to force its passage. It actually was passed earlier in the evening by an historic vote of 240 to 194.Some cowardly members did not vote at all. This amendment stripped abortion funding from the otherwise anti-life Legislation. Prior to the amendment, the funding would have occurred through both the so called �Public Option� and through what are called �affordability credits� which are to be given to certain health care consumers in order to purchase insurance. It was, as many including this writer pointed out, a �shell game�. It would have resulted in the spilling of more of the blood of the innocents in our Nation. Congressman Bart Stupak, Pro-Life Democrat, is the hero of the hour.

Congressman Bart Stupak is a faithful Catholic and a Democrat from the first Congressional District of Michigan who Co-Chairs the Bi-Partisan Pro-Life Caucus with another faithful Catholic, Republican Congressman Chris Smith. Stupak is one of a strong and vocal contingent of Pro-Life Democrats who carry on the legacy of the late, great Governor of Pennsylvania Bob Casey. They hear the cry of all the poor, including children in the first home of the whole human race, their mother�s womb. They recognize the truth that these dear children whom Mother Teresa rightly called the �poorest of the poor� have no voice but ours. These fellow Americans living in the womb are our first neighbors. It is men and women like Bart Stupak and Chris Smith who are the models of public service for all Catholics and other Christians.Stupak is a Democrat, Smith is a Republican.

Congressman Stupak ...

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1 - 10 of 47 Comments

Bulbajer
3 years ago
Jean, I haven't been getting this impression from every pro-lifer, nor the majority of articles on this site, but mostly from a lot of commentors here. Also from the "partisan Catholic right," which I use here as comparable to Catholics who know the Church is right on abortion but still rally with the lefties and never consider being conservative even on one issue an option ("partisan Catholic left"). The "partisan Catholic right" as I have observed (not all conservative Catholics) cheer when conservatives make a victory for life and sulk when liberals help the poor.
There are certainly many conservative Catholics here who do not fit that description.
Jean
3 years ago
Bulbajer

I dont get this impression about what the pro-life movement casts as stereotypical women who get abortions.

You should look up Priests for Life Website because you will not get that impression from them.

Respectfully I say this of course.

So respectfully where are you getting your information from?
Bulbajer
3 years ago
Thanks very much, Deacon. You made me very happy :)
Bulbajer
3 years ago
Jackson, I don't agree with you, but I do think this site needs to address the issue of what we can do to help women who see abortion as badly-needed economic relief. Most women receive abortions because they can't afford another baby. This doesn't make it right, but the pro-life movement in general has tended to cast these women as self-absorbed, middle-class, ingorantly liberal feminists who only want abortions because they don't want to have a baby. I think that if we make abortion illegal (which we shoul), we owe it to those women to increase support for pregnant and nursing women, financially and spiritually. Are there any other ideas?
DR
3 years ago
@Jackson: You make it sound as if everything to do with women's health is about abortion. I'm tired of hearing you liberals whine because tax dollars won't be used to support your selfish act. Would you like if a law was passed requiring your tax dollars to go to abstinence-only education? NO, you wouldn't! Well we feel the same about abortion.

I think the best compromise on this issue is that every pro-choicer should identify their self when they apply for a driver license (like you do for voting) and that information will be used to deduct an "abortion surcharge" from your own pay checks. If you think America wants abortion that badly then you'll have no problem collecting enough money to fund it.

Stop trying to force those of us who value the sanctity of marriage and only use sex for making children to pay for the consequences of your sex-addictions.

@All: Republican Pitts had a great hand in this amendment as well yet I see Catholics mainly praising Stupak. A great man he is but give credit where credit is due. I believe the Church cuddled with Democrats for too many years and is paying for that now. Embrace both equally and quit the favoritism. Republicans (a.k.a. Protestants) may have been Catholic enemies for centuries but we need to get past that and unite. The Democrats DO NOT have the Holy Grail solution for poverty because there are still poor people and always will be as Jesus said. The real Catholic gets off their butt and goes to the soup kitchen while hippie thinks their job is done after they pull the level!!
Jackson
3 years ago
Congratulations to all of you for your assault on women's health care. You should all be ashamed.
Jean
3 years ago
Cyril

You say many of us are Republicans. Well lets hope that we are just all Catholics in communion with the teachings of the Catholic Church?

Hopefully and peacefully our thinking in Catholic teaching transcends party ideologies?

Hope so. Peace.
Bob Karbowski
3 years ago
I can't fathom why any Catholic in communion with the Holy Father would be pleased with a Health Care Bill which will require Catholics to pay for artificial contraception. And why hasn't the USCCB made this a requirement for their support?
Melissa
3 years ago
I'm still quite puzzled as to why my follow-up comments (twice) haven't been posted. I haven't misrepresented Church teaching. Nor have I made false or overtly political statements -- certainly no more so than anything else posted here. What specifically did I write that was inappropriate? I'm really very curious.
jeff6161
3 years ago
Here are the problems that I have with this Health Care Bill, As it stands now, we can go to our own Doctor and receive certain test to determine the problem and then receive treatment for such condition, But, If this bill passes, then we go to our Doctor, who in turn, has to send us home until he is told by some bureaucrat in the government with no medical experience which tests he is or is not allowed to give us and which treatment he will be allowed to give if the problem is actually found because of lack of testing to save money..Not to mention Doctor, patient privacy will be lost forever?? My parents are old and poor and can't survive with $500 billion cut from Medicare...Also, if this is such a good thing, why then did the creators of the bill EXEMPT themselves from having to participate in this, something is wrong there.... and then threaten the rest of us with 5 years in Federal Prison if we can't afford the plan, which will be way more expensive than they say. Not to mention millions in the private sector will lose their jobs. FACT: Government History has taught me that the actual cost of the bill will be at LEAST 10 times higher

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