Religion & Law

According to the National Right to Life Committee (fact-sheet here), the proposed plan "will result in federally mandated coverage of abortion on demand in virtually all of America's health plans" and could also pre-empt (FOCA-style) many state laws that currently restrict abortion.

Will the House's pro-life Democrats insist that abortions and abortion clinics be excluded from the plan?  I do not see anything about the plan on the website of Democrats for Life, or at the one for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.

At America, Michael Sean Winters says that "it is time for Catholic Democrats to lay down some markers."  He adds,

Many of us pro-life Democrats have given the President the benefit of the doubt on the abortion issue because of his repeated commitment to trying to lower the abortion rate, a commitment he reiterated to Pope Benedict XVI last week. All the good will he has earned among Catholic swing voters, and all the arguments on his behalf progressive Catholics have mounted, all could be swept away if abortion is part of a federal option in health care. Politics is the art of compromise, but on this point, there can be none.