Catholic bishops issued a call for fierce opposition
to the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) from their annual national
conference. They offered olive branches to the incoming Barack Obama
administration on a wide range of policies, but drew the line at
rolling back every abortion restriction over the last 35 years. Saying
that they could never cooperate with evil, the bishops called into
question whether the Catholic Church would continue to provide health
care if FOCA passes
How serious are they? So serious that they won’t bother to sell the
hospitals. They’ll shut them down and take the losses in order to
prevent their use as abortion clinics. To do otherwise, the bishops
stated, would be to cooperate in the evil of abortions.
What kind of impact would that have? The Catholic Church is one of the nation’s biggest health-care providers.
In 2007, they ran 557 hospitals that serviced over 83 million
patients. The church also had 417 clinics that saw over seven million
patients. If they shut down almost a thousand hospitals and clinics
nationwide, the US would not just lose a significant portion of
available health care, but the poor and working-class families that
received the health care would have fewer options.
Also, the Catholic Church runs this on a non-profit basis, spending
vast sums of its money to ensure access for those unable to pay.
That’s the kind of model that many on the Left believe should
exclusively provide health care — and FOCA would spell the end of the
major provider already in that model.
Unfortunately, the Catholic Church didn’t spell this out explicitly
enough earlier in the year, when it may have made some difference with
parishioners. At least they are speaking out on it now. We have to
push hard for a filibuster on FOCA, and hope we have enough Republican
votes to sustain it.