Obama at the CHA | National Catholic Reporter

Obama at the CHA | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB On the compromise, the bishops and the sisteers.  The bishops always said that they would accept a transition to the state quo with the same abortion rules, however the assumption came into play that employers would drop care subsidized by the health insurance exclusion and put their employees in the exchanges, where were more like the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan, which did have an abortion ban.  Stupak was fine in the House, but not in the Senate and for just that reason.  Had Republicans agreed to vote for final passage for a compromise, there would have been one.  The pro-lifers and the bishops among them did not want the loss - not for the unborn but for their egos, which was apparent when the retaliation occurred by the bishops and the fraudulently named Susan B. Anthony Fund (who essentially lied about the ACA to defeat the pro-life Democrats who would have been very useful to Boehner later).



Its really a silly issue.  Abortons are cheap and first trimester ones are paid for with cash 80% of the time.  You are more likely to have your money go to abortion when you eat fast food than when you sign up for insurance.



As for the free market option, they could have pushed it - indeed they could have put in a bridge between the medical savings account and the catastrophic policy with a medical line of credit.  Of course, sinced health is not a normal good, doing so has people receive as much care as comprehensive insurance, so there are no cost savings.



The archbishops who attended added the right note.  Of course, I don't expect the likes of Dolan, Lori, Chaput, Rigali or Burke would be invited.



As for right to die issues, they will never be framed as suicide, although even Catholic hospitals pull the plug on a dead patient or medicate the pain level perceived rather than leave it low to preserve life.  It is not God's will that everyone wake up, but its nice (and rare) when they do.



Sister Carol is truly a national leader.  I am sure she did not take her vows with that in mind.  As for the bishops, if they want to quit being national jokes, they will forget the word contraception for a while, and also stay away from feighned outrage over gay marriage.  Had they allowed Catholic hospitals to treat same sex partners as spouses, there would have been no push that way.