The Bishops Contingent Opposition to Health Care Legislation

The Bishops are pushing for an amendment to the health care bill in the Senate to assure that federal funds are not used to support abortions. If the amendment is not passed, the Bishops maintain that the health care bill should be opposed altogether (could it not be favored on the principle of double effect?). Whatever happens with the bill, rich and middle class women will be able to get abortions.  Similarly, the question raised by the amendment may not be whether poor women get abortions, but the conditions under which they get them. The one sure thing is that if the amendment fails, and the Bishops succeed in blocking this vital legislation, millions of poor men, women, and children will be denied access to adequate health care. This may be Catholic as the Bishops define it, but I doubt that it is Christian.