The Gloves are Off: Planned Parenthood President Slams U.S. Bishops on Abortion, Healthcare

You know, I do not care HOW you slice it, ABORTION IS NOT HEALTH CARE!!

Lord, have Mercy!!

The Gloves are Off: Planned Parenthood President Slams U.S. Bishops on Abortion, Healthcare

By John Jalsevac

August 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, has penned a scathing editorial, published today in the Huffington Post, in which she sets her sights on the U.S. Catholic bishops, slamming them for their opposition to the abortion mandate in the Obama health care bill, and to abortion in general.

"Does anyone else see the irony in the U.S. bishops wanting to define universal health care as covering everything except for what they don't support?" writes Richards. "Since when does universal health care mean denying comprehensive reproductive health care supported by the majority of Americans?"

Richards then goes on to accuse the bishops of endangering "millions" of women's lives around the globe with their "hard-line opposition to women's rights." "The effort to criminalize access to safe abortion endangers most women in the developing world -- the very women that you would think the bishops would be concerned about," says Richards.

The U.S. bishops, while expressing support for healthcare reform in general, have been adamant in their stance that healthcare reform must not include mandated abortion coverage - something that the current legislation would do if passed. 

In an August 11 letter Cardinal Justin Rigali, Chairman of United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities, carefully but forcefully countered claims, propagated by proponents of Obama's healthcare reform, including Planned Parenthood and Cecile Richards, that the Obama plan wouldn't mandate abortion coverage and lead to taxpayer funding for abortions.

Any claim that taxpayer money would not be used to fund abortion is "an illusion," said Rigali in that letter. "Government will force low-income Americans to subsidize abortions for others (and abortion coverage for themselves) even if they find abortion morally abhorrent."

Numerous other prominent bishops, including Archbishop Charles Chaput, Bishop Robert Vasa, and Bishop R. Walter Nickless have also spoken strongly against the abortion provisions in the healthcare bill.

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