By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Journalist The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sent a strongly worded letter to members of the U.S. Senate on Friday in which they called the Senate health care bill “completely unacceptable.” Even though members of the U.S. Senate voted 60 – 39 on Saturday evening to begin debate on the controversial bill, the leaders of the Catholic Church are lining up in opposition much as they did against the House bill which was passed only after its abortion-funding provisions were stripped from the bill. "The new Senate bill is an enormous disappointment, creating new and completely unacceptable federal policy that endangers human life and rights of conscience,” said the bishop in their Nov. 20  letter to Senators. “ . . . (W)e strongly urge the Senate to incorporate essential changes to the Senate’s health care reform bill to ensure that needed health care reform legislation truly protects the life, dignity, consciences and health of all. We especially urge the Senate to act as the House has in the following respects: keep in place current federal law on abortion funding and conscience protections on abortion; protect the access to health care that immigrants currently have and remove current barriers to access; and include strong provisions for adequate affordability and coverage standards.” On the issue of abortion, the bishops are asking the Senate to adopt the Stupak-Pitts Amendment which bans the funding of abortion in any government programs. “This amendment does not change the current situation in our country,” the bishops say in response to critics who claim the amendment changed the “status quo.” They correctly point out that abortion is legal and available, but under the Hyde Amendment, no federal dollars can be used to pay for elective abortions. “This provision simply keeps in place existing policy and allows Congress to honor the President’s commitment that ‘no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions,’” the bishops write. As it is currently written, the Senate bill  provides federal funding for plans that cover abortion, and creates an unprecedented mandatory “abortion surcharge” in such plans that will require pro-life purchasers to pay directly and explicitly for other people’s abortions, the bishops point out. “Its version of a public health plan (the “community health insurance plan”) allows the Secretary of HHS to mandate coverage of unlimited abortions nationwide, and also allows each state to mandate such abortion coverage for all state residents taking part in this federal program even if the Secretary does not do so.” As a result, the bill "seriously weakens the current nondiscrimination policy protecting providers who decline involvement in abortion, providing stronger protection for facilities that perform and promote abortion than for those which do not.” Critically important conscience protections on issues beyond abortion have yet to be included in the bill, the bishops say. “To take just one example, the bill fails to ensure that even religious institutions would retain the freedom to offer their own employees health insurance coverage that conforms to the institution’s teaching. On these various issues the new Senate bill is an enormous disappointment, creating new and completely unacceptable federal policy that endangers human life and rights of conscience.” In addition, the bishops are calling for health coverage for all immigrants, regardless of status, and an elimination of the five-year ban on legal immigrants accessing federal health benefit programs, such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Medicare. The letter also criticizes the bill for leaving 24 million people without health insurance. “This is not acceptable,” they say. “Our appeal for health care legislation that truly protects the life, dignity, health and consciences of all reflects the unique perspectives and experience of the Catholic community,” the bishops write. “Our emergency rooms, shelters, clinics, and charities pick up the pieces of a failing health care system. Our Catholic moral tradition teaches that health care is a basic human right, essential to protecting human life and dignity.” The conclude by exhorting the Senate to “fashion health care reform legislation that truly protects the life, dignity, health and consciences of all.” © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com