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Email a FriendPosted by Jo Griffith on Tuesday, Jan 27, 2009 7:18 PM (EDT):
I pray that these leaders, especially those who call themselves Catholic, will be touched by our Blessed Mother who can change their hearts.
Battle Over Contraceptive Funding
Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Tuesday, January 27, 2009 1:13 PM
The new budget may not include funding for contraceptives after all.
Perhaps you’ve seen by now the rather incredible comments Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made during a Sunday morning interview.
The logic of what she says—providing contraception to the poor will reduce costs to state governments—is chilling, as numerous Catholic and pro-life websites have pointed out. It reflects an attitude that people—poor people in particular—are drains on the system. What an attitude to have about the citizens you represent!
To extend the Speaker the benefit of the doubt, it sounds to me as if she was struggling to invent a defense of the expense without thinking about the ramifications of what she was saying. Nevertheless, if the linked account is true, the President may have overruled her.
House Democrats are likely to jettison family planning funds for the low-income from an $825 billion economic stimulus bill, officials said late Monday, following a personal appeal from President Barack Obama at a time the administration is courting Republican critics of the legislation.
This is in no way the final word on the matter, and I’ll keep you posted, but as Margaret Cabaniss notes at Inside Catholic, the positions are a bit mind-blowing:
It’s the Catholic speaker who was for birth control as “economic stimulus”; it’s the unapologetically pro-choice president who is intervening. Incredible.
It’s not that Mr. Obama has any objection to funding contraceptives in principle. But in a time of economic crunch he appears to be more pragmatic and less dogmatic about it than the Speaker of the House. Let’s see how this plays out in the final draft. And maybe say a little prayer right now to nudge the process?
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Posted by Genevieve on Wednesday, Jan 28, 2009 7:29 AM (EDT):
Obama just noticed that it wasn’t politically popular and threw Ms. Pelosi under the bus. But don’t be sanguine about it. The stimulus bill still has plenty of time and plenty of pork for this funding to get stuffed back into it. I found it interesting that the Catholic Conference though is support the Child Health Insurance bill, also known as SCHIP. SCHIP provides that legal immigrants’ children will have Medicaid cards, immediately. This is why Ms. Pelosi, however, wants the contraceptive funding—so that there will be a limit to the number of children once a family is on board. So the Catholic Conference says FIGHT FOCA! one day but says SUPPORT SCHIP the next!! It makes the Church look hypocritical, because its hospitals want the money from a child health plan, but it hasn’t considered the long-term implications of the plan as socialized medicine, where once the state provides the services, it can then decide who gets which services.
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