By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Responding to attacks by the president of Planned Parenthood criticizing the U.S. bishops work to exclude abortion coverage from health care legislation, an official from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sets the record straight.
In an exclusive interview with the Catholic News Agency (CNA), Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the USSCB’s Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, addressed claims made by Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richard in an August 18 opinion piece in the Huffington Post.
In this article, Richards claimed the Church’s attempts to exclude abortion coverage is because they want to deny “comprehensive reproductive care” to women – which she erroneously claimed was supported by the majority of Americans.
She also criticized the Church’s position that contraception is not basic health care and that “emergency contraception” will not reduce the need for abortion.
“Seems that, if the U.S. Conference had its way, the national health care system would make American women second-class citizens and deny them access to benefits they currently have,” she charged.
Richards went on to cite the usual pro-abortion mantras such as how contraception reduces the need for “unsafe abortions” and reduces the rates of sexually transmitted diseases.
Doerflinger corrected many of Richards’ falsehoods, including the claim that most Americans favored “comprehensive reproductive health care.”
“This is not supported by majority of Americans,” he said. “The majority of Americans describe themselves as pro-life. We don’t see the taking of human life, at any stage, as health care at all. Most Americans do not want to pay for abortions,” he said.
He also countered Richards’ argument about how contraception will reduce the need for abortions.
“ . . .(I)t is the case that there is a great deal of evidence that contraceptive programs fail to reduce abortions,” Doerflinger said. “We cite the primary sources for that on our website so that people can read them for themselves.”
On emergency contraception, he pointed out that there have been 23 major studies of the effects of emergency contraceptives.
“None of the 23 was able to find any effect in reducing abortions,” he said, adding that these facts had been reviewed by scientists unopposed to emergency contraception.
He urged Richards to stop “running away from the facts” and “citing contraception as the cure for everything” when the evidence proves otherwise.
“We mean by universal coverage what everybody but Planned Parenthood means. That is, we need to cover all the people. We know that people need health care throughout life from conception to natural death. That is why fetology is a branch of human medicine, which Richards seem unaware of,” Doerflinger said.
“Universal coverage doesn’t mean that Americans are forced to pay for absolutely everything a doctor might be willing to do,” he said, such as for elective procedures like cosmetic surgery.
He summed up his objections to Planned Parenthood’s position:
“I think what Planned Parenthood is saying is that millions of people must continue to go without basic health care unless they can get their wish list of making everyone pay for abortions. I think that the charge of being ‘single issue’ falls squarely back on Planned Parenthood’s side, because this is not the kind of health care that most Americans want to purchase or have to pay for.
“This issue could bring down health care reform. We hope that that does not happen, but an insistence on this one issue on their part might do so.”
To read the full interview, go to http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=16890
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