Religion & Law

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Stupak explained his decision as follows:

?I was pleased to see that President Obama?s health care proposal did not include several of the sweetheart deals provided to select states in the Senate bill. Unfortunately, the president's proposal encompasses the Senate language allowing public funding of abortion.

"The Senate language is a significant departure from current law and is unacceptable. While the president has laid out a health care proposal that brings us closer to resolving our differences, there is still work to be done before Congress can pass comprehensive health care reform.??

The public-funding-of-abortion issue is not, I gather, limited to the matter of whether or not people can purchase federally subsidized plans that cover abortion.  (For more on that issue, read this position paper, put out by the USCCB.)  The President's new proposal, I gather, also authorizes (a) direct funding of Community Health Centers (including ones operated by Planned Parenthood that perform abortions) and (b) direct federal funding of abortions on Indian Country.  This latter aspect of the proposal, it seems to me, is particularly regrettable, given the extent to which Native Americans in Indian Country have been so badly neglected, and in so many ways.