Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Barack Obama's choice for secretary of the Health and Human Services Department is an abortion advocate who could preside over a national health care plan that covers abortion. But the Catholic Health Association has applauded Obama's selection of former Sen. Tom Daschle.

Obama initially named Daschle in November to the post, where he will likely help Obama rescind the protections the Bush administration is putting in place any day now for pro-life doctors and medical centers.

Daschle is a strong abortion advocate whose record was so poor that the National Right to Life Committee never gave him higher than a 27 percent pro-life voting record during his tenure in Congress.

Yet, Sister Carol Keehan, the president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association issued a statement praising Obama's pick.

She said her group "welcomes" Daschle and called him an "extraordinary and capable leader" who will "bring an enormous understanding of health care delivery issues and the need for meaningful reform for American families and businesses."

Keehan said Obama, by selecting Daschle, showed he "continues to understand that health care reform is a major domestic policy issue" and indicated she looked forward to working with Obama and Daschle.

She said Obama made good on his promises to expand health care but apparently ignores his promises to expand abortion.

Ironically, the nation's Catholic bishops don't see it that way and they talked about their concerns at their national meeting last month that Obama's potential signing of the so-called Freedom of Choice Act could put Catholic hospitals out of business by making them do abortions.

Some of the bishops, during the discussion, went as far as saying the Catholic Church should be willing to close some health facilities rather them allow them to be subject to a mandate to do abortions from the Obama administration.

Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Chicago spoke up about the threats to Catholic health care under the bill.

“It could mean discontinuing obstetrics in our hospitals, and we may need to consider taking the drastic step of closing our Catholic hospitals entirely,” Paprocki said. “It would not be sufficient to withdraw our sponsorship or to sell them to someone who would perform abortions. That would be a morally unacceptable cooperation in evil.”

“I do not think I'm being alarmist in considering such drastic steps,” he said. “We need to respond in a morally appropriate, responsible fashion.”

Despite their concerns, CHA's Keehan also applauded Obama for picking Jeanne Lambrew to serve as deputy director of new White House Office of Health Reform.

That puts CHA in league with Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business, which also congratulated Obama for picking an abortion advocate to help head the agency responsible for a new health care plan.

ACTION: Contact the Catholic Health Association with your concerns at Catholic Health Association, 1875 Eye St., NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20006-5409, call (202) 296-3993, or email Sister Carol Keehan at ckeehan@chausa.org.

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