Catholic debate: Health care vs. abortion

<p>As a Catholic and a retired nurse, Ann McGee is conflicted about her church’s controversial stance on abortion and federal health-care legislation.</p><p>The Santa Rosa woman is anti-abortion, but she worries church officials risk derailing the legislation by drawing a hard line on the issue.</p><p>“I’m very, very concerned about people who die every day for lack of health care. That needs to be on the front burner,” McGee said outside St. Rose Catholic Church, where she is the volunteer coordinator of the adult education program.</p><p>From parish pews to the halls of Congress, Catholics are caught up in a debate that challenges their core beliefs on two central tenets: health care for all and protecting the unborn.</p><p>The internal tensions are being met with equal amounts of public scrutiny over the church’s efforts to influence health care legislation, bringing harsh criticism from some who accuse church leaders of overstepping their authority.</p><p>The church’s official position, advocated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is that federal insurance subsidies contained in any health care legislation be prohibited from funding elective abortion.</p><p>The bishops successfully lobbied lawmakers to include an amendment with that language in a health care bill that narrowly passed the House on Nov. 7.</p><p>As the Senate is poised to vote on the issue, priests nationwide, including on the North Coast, are urging church members to contact their legislators to advocate for health care in which “abortion, euthanasia or other immoral activities are not mandated or financed with taxpayer dollars” — the statement issued by the conference of bishops.</p><p>One such directive was sent out by Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh, who this week attended a meeting of the bishops in Washington.</p><p>Walsh refused repeated requests over four days for comment.</p><p>Many Catholics say they are comfortable with the church’s position, saying it is consistent with its teachings on abortion.</p><p>“I don’t think abortion is an issue we can compromise on,” said Mary Heeney, a retired Santa Rosa CPA who is the parish bookkeeper for St. Rose. “Abortion kills babies.”</p><p>But abortion rights supporters say the so-called Stupak Amendment, if enacted, would in effect block coverage for abortion even when individuals paid for policies themselves.</p><p>The amendment applies to people who use federal subsidies to buy insurance on a new “exchange,” or insurance marketplace. Critics argue women would not seek out so-called abortion riders that would be allowed under the amendment because they don’t plan to have unintended pregnancies or medically complicated pregnancies. Abortion-rights advocates fear that would prompt insurance companies to stop covering the procedure.</p><p>Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, has been among the church’s fiercest critics, including an article Woolsey wrote for the Web site Politico.com this week in which she called on the IRS to investigate the Catholic Church’s tax-exempt status.</p><p>Woolsey garnered national headlines as a result of the article, as well as criticism from some high-ranking Democrats who fear the position she outlined could alienate Catholic voters, most of whom supported Barack Obama for president.</p><p>Woolsey refused numerous requests this week to comment.</p><p>Both she and Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, voted in favor of the House bill despite their opposition to the abortion language.</p><p>Thompson, who is Catholic and an abortion-rights advocate, also is critical of the church’s stance.</p><p>“It’s exactly why they should stick to saying Mass and I should write the legislation,” he said. “One, I think they got in over their heads. Two, I think you have to be careful when you are co-mingling church and state.”</p><p>Thompson said he expects the Democratic-controlled Senate will not include such abortion language in its version of the bill, and that in the end, he will be able to support the final package.</p><p>Asked if he would vote no on a bill that did contain that language, Thompson replied: “I don’t deal with hypotheticals.”</p><p>Some Catholic lawmakers, however, are facing scorn from their own church for not supporting abortion limits tied to health care.</p><p>That’s true for Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., whose bishop accused him of falsely advertising himself as Catholic and threatened to withhold communion from him.</p><p>Monsignor John Brenkle of St. Helena Catholic Church said he has no intentions of denying communion to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, who owns a Napa Valley winery and attends Brenkle’s church when in town.</p><p>“There are people who would strongly forbid Nancy Pelosi from receiving communion, but I’m sorry, we don’t question people’s religious or political stance,” he said.</p><p>Brenkle acknowledged tensions within his church, saying parishioners “are as conflicted about this as Congress is.”</p><p>Brenkle, who is against abortion and a registered Democrat, has staked a personal position on the health care debate that places him at odds with church hierarchy. While he does not support federal funding for abortion, Brenkle said he does not want that position to scuttle health care overhaul.</p><p>“I would much prefer to see abortion excluded, just I would much prefer to see the poor and immigrants included,” he said. “But I don’t think either of those should kill off the first step of reform. The debate is going to go on forever. This is not etched in concrete.”</p><p>But where Brenkle and others within the church see room for compromise, others see capitulation if health care does not include restrictions on abortion.</p><p>“It’s so basic to me. It’s about life,” said Nan Kumpula, a St. Rose worshiper who supports the bishops’ stance. “If you start with abortion, you’re eventually going to take the lives of older people you don’t think should be alive.”</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Derek J. Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@</p><p>pressdemocrat.com.</p>