Are the Bishops Responsible for the Capps Amendment?
The Unexpected Result of Finger-Pointing
Editor: this was published October 19 on InsideCatholic.com by Deal Hudson
An article by Amy Sullivan in Time, "Health Care: Will Catholic Bishops Try to Block Reform," is very revealing. As Sullivan tells the story, health care reform may fail and the USCCB [United States Conference of Catholic Bishops] will share the blame.
The USCCB, according to Sullivan, is guilty of an "inconsistent approach to the issue" of abortion which "created confusion that has hampered Democratic attempts to accommodate their concerns."
The confusion was created by the difference in two letters from Cardinal Rigali, one from July, the other on August 11. In the first, Rigali stated the USCCB was opposed to any "direct funding of abortion." Congressional Democrats took that as an endorsement of their Capps Amendment [introduced by Lois Capps, congresswoman from Santa Barbara]. That amendment, as Sullivan explains, allowed an individual to obtain an abortion "but the procedure would be paid with segregated dollars from a pool funded by privately-paid premiums."
In other words, abortion under the "public option" would be paid for by premiums not directly by federal tax dollars. In his August letter, Cardinal Rigali rejected this approach -- "Funds paid into these plans are fungible, and federal taxpayer funds will subsidize the operating budget and provider networks that expand access to abortion." The inconsistency, as Sullivan sees it, is that Rigali changed his position from opposing direct funding of abortion to indirect funding.
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