Washington D.C., Jan 27, 2010 / 17:25 pm
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sent a letter to Congress on Jan. 26 strongly urging members of Congress to “come together and recommit themselves to enacting genuine health care reform that will protect the life, dignity, consciences, and health of all.”
Noting that “the health care debate, with all its political and ideological conflict, seems to have lost its central moral focus and policy priority,” Bishop William F. Murphy, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Chairman of the Committee on Pro-life Activities; and Bishop John Wester, Chairman of the Committee on Migration; spoke on behalf of their brother bishops and called for Congress to “set aside partisan divisions and special interest pressures to find ways to enact genuine reform.”
“Although political contexts have changed, the moral and policy failure that leaves tens of millions of our sisters and brothers without access to health care still remains,” the letter charged. It then presented the three main points in which the bishops, who have long held that health care is a basic human right, and have “supported adequate and affordable health care for all,” found the current reform legislation to be morally deficient.
These three points, which the bishops encouraged the House and Senate to include or modify in their pending legislation, are: the ensured access to “quality, affordable, life-giving health care for all,” as well as the retention of “longstanding requirements that federal funds not be used for elective abortions or plans that include them, and effectively protects conscience rights.”