The president of the U.S. bishops’ conference is calling the Senate’s move to table an amendment that would prevent federal money from funding abortion “a serious blow” to health care reform.
Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, said this today after the Senate voted 54-45 on Monday to kill the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment proposed by senators Ben Nelson, Orrin Hatch and Robert Casey.
A similar measure was passed in the House of Representatives, paving the way for the passage there of the “Affordable Health Care for America Act.”
“The Senate is ignoring the promise made by President Obama and the will of the American people in failing to incorporate longstanding prohibitions on federal funding for abortion and plans that include abortion,” Cardinal George said.
“While we deplore the Senate’s refusal to adopt the Nelson-Hatch-Casey amendment, we remain hopeful that the protections overwhelmingly passed by the House will be incorporated into needed reform legislation,” he added. “Failure to exclude abortion funding will turn allies into adversaries and require us and others to oppose this bill because it abandons both principle and precedent.”
I see that my “pro-life” Senator, Claire “Herod” McCaskill voted to reject the amendment. I wonder how much $$ she got.