Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

Congress should reaffirm the principle that government “should not force anyone to stop offering or covering much-needed legitimate health care” because of a conscientious objection to abortion or other procedures, said Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, O.F.M.Cap., of Boston and Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore. In a letter on Feb. 13 to the House of Representatives, the bishops, who chair the Committee on Pro-Life Activities and the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, urged legislators to support and co-sponsor the Health Care Conscience Rights Act (HR 940). “It is increasingly obvious that Congress needs to act to protect conscientious objection to the taking of innocent human life,” wrote Cardinal O’Malley and Archbishop Lori. “Recently California’s Department of Managed Health Care began demanding that all health plans under its jurisdiction include elective abortions, including late-term abortions. This mandate has no exemption for religious or moral objections, and is being enforced against religious universities, schools and even churches.”

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Henry George
10 years 3 months ago
This may seem extreme but why don't all the Bishops and the Pope ask all Catholics to stop paying taxes until the abortions of healthy babies is no longer a public right. Excommunicate those politicians who do not actively oppose abortions but instead sign bills allowing/expanding access to abortions. Are we not morally cooperating when our tax monies go to support Police Protections for Abortion Mills ? Isn't the Politician morally cooperating, if indeed not, actively initiating more abortions by making it easier to have abortions ? Why do we take such moral umbrage that our pooled insurance money might be spent on abortions when 1,000,000 legalized deaths take place each year and the Church ask little of us save the occasional public protest on the Saturday closest to the Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade ?

The latest from america

On "Preach," Anthony SooHoo, S.J., draws on unexpected images from Celtic Christianity in his homily for Pentecost, Year C.
PreachJune 02, 2025
Pope Leo XIV “is the man the church and the world need right now” and his greatest challenge, “the one he’ll carry most in his heart, is peace in the world.”
Gerard O’ConnellJune 02, 2025
Elon Musk attends a news conference with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Elon Musk and DOGE have used the language of efficiency to impose a radical change in how we view helping others.
Richard A. LevinsJune 02, 2025
Pope Francis greets then-Cardinal Robert F. Prevost during a consistory in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Sept. 30, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
If we truly believe that the church includes all the baptized, we need better systems of transparency and accountability so that the laity might truly participate co-responsibly in our church.
Peter DenioJune 02, 2025