"Christian" Leaders Endorse Fake Abortion Funding Compromise for Senate Bill

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Dec 18, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

"Christian" Leaders Endorse Fake Abortion Funding Compromise for Senate Bill

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 18
, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — More than three dozen "Christian leaders have signed on to a new statement out Friday that supports the fake abortion funding compromise Sen. Bob Casey introduced this week. The compromise was supposed to get Sen. Ben Nelson to back the bill but he and pro-life groups dismissed it.

The so-called pro-life evangelicals are not affiliated with any of the numerous pro-life groups that promote pro-life issues on a daily basis.

Some of them signed onto fraudulent statements backing pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama and claiming he would be pro-life on abortion or reduce abortions.

"More than three dozen pro-life Christian pastors, leaders and theologians released the following statement Friday morning, December 18, 2009, to applaud Sen. Robert Casey’ proposed alternative language on abortion to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," the lead-in to their statement says.

"As Christian leaders moved by our faith to protect life at all stages, we applaud Sen. Robert Casey’s efforts to ensure that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act prohibits federal funding of abortion," they write.

"Sen. Casey’s alternative language" would ensure "no federal funds pay for abortions in any way," they claim.

"Given the complicated set of concerns surrounding abortion funding and coverage in health care reform, this alternative language, which we understand will be included in the manager’s amendment to the Senate bill, is a way forward," they write.

But, in a new letter to Casey, the National Right to Life Committee has released its full analysis of the compromise.

"Your proposal completely fails to correct any of the major pro-abortion provisions in the underlying Reid bill," the letter from NRLC said. "We believe that your proposed language in no way improves the highly objectionable provisions of the Reid bill that authorize subsidies for health plans that cover elective abortion, and that authorize federal mandates for private health plans to cover elective abortion."

"Under your language, federal funds would be used to pay the premiums of private health plans that pay for elective abortion on demand, for tens of millions of Americans. This is completely unacceptable," the letter states.

And, in a new statement, nation’s Catholic bishops gave Casey a thumbs down.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo said in a statement LifeNews.com obtained that the legislation will be morally unacceptable “unless and until” it complies with longstanding current laws on abortion funding such as the Hyde amendment.

“Senator Casey’s good-faith effort to allow individuals to ‘opt out’ of abortion coverage actually underscores how radically the underlying Senate bill would change abortion policy," Cardinal DiNardo said.

"Excluding elective abortions from overall health plans is not a privilege that individuals should have to seek as the exception to the norm. In all other federal health programs, excluding abortion coverage is the norm. And numerous opinion polls show that the great majority of Americans do not want abortion coverage," he added.

Signatories on the letter from the Christian leaders include:

Ron Sider
President, Evangelicals for Social Action

Joel Hunter
Senior Pastor, Northland Church

David Neff
Editor, Christianity Today

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez
President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference

Simone Campbell, SSS
Executive Director, NETWORK

Sister Marlene Weisenbeck, FSPA
President, Leadership Conference of Women Religious

Stephen F. Schneck, PhD
Director, Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies The Catholic University of America

Dr. David P. Gushee
Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics, Mercer University

Dr. Barbara Williams Skinner
President, Skinner Leadership Institute

Rev. Dr. Cynthia L. Hale
Senior Pastor, Ray of Hope Christian Church

Brian McLaren
Author, Speaker and Founding Pastor, Cedar Ridge Community Church

James E. Hug, S.J.
President, Center of Concern

Victoria Kovari
Interim Executive Director, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good

Rev. Richard Cizik

Cheryl Bridges Johns
Professor of Christian Formation & Discipleship, Pentecostal Theological Seminary

Derrick Harkins
Senior Pastor, Nineteenth Street Baptist Church

Rev. Gabriel Salguero
The Latino Leadership Circle

Kenneth R. Himes, O.F.M.
Chairperson, Theology Department, Boston College

Glen Stassen
Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics, Fuller Theological Seminary

Stephen J. Pope
Professor of Theological Ethics, Boston College

David DeCosse
Director of Campus Ethics Programs, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University

The Hon. Douglas W. Kmiec

M. Shawn Copeland
Associate Professor of Theology, Boston College

Richard R. Gaillardetz
Murray/Bacik Professor of Catholic Studies, University of Toledo

William O’Neill, S.J.
Associate Prof. of Social Ethics, Jesuit School of Theology, Santa Clara University

Nancy Dallavalle
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Religious Studies Fairfield University

Vincent Rougeau
Associate Professor, Notre Dame Law School

J. Matthew Ashley
Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, University of Notre Dame

Christine Firer Hinze
Professor, Christian Ethics, Department of Theology, Fordham University

Terrence W. Tilley
Professor of Theology and Chair of the Department Fordham University

Bruce T. Morrill
Associate Professor, Theology Department, Boston College

Todd Whitmore
Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, University of Notre Dame

Dennis M. Doyle
Professor of Religious Studies, University of Dayton

Bradford E. Hinze
Professor of Theology, Fordham University

Vincent Miller
Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Dayton

Alex Mikulich
Jesuit Social Research Institute, Loyola University New Orleans

Elizabeth Groppe
Associate Professor of Theology, Xavier University

Maria Riley, OP
Senior Advisor, Global Women’s Project, Center of Concern

Bryan N. Massingale
Associate Professor of Theology, Marquette University

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