Pro-Choice Religious Leaders Denounce Stupak Amendment

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Leaders of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice urged U.S. Senators Monday to remove language from the final health care reform bill that restricts federal funding for abortion.

“Health care reform that attacks the rights of more than half of the population by subjecting some of their most basic and intimate decisions to a large and powerful church’s governing body is not reform at all,” said Barry Lynn, Executive Director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, during a morning press conference hosted by the National Press Club.

While the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, an organization with members from a variety of religious backgrounds, advocated women’s reproductive rights, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops pushed House leaders to amend their bill to prohibit abortion coverage.

The Stupak-Pitts amendment, included in the House bill, restricts abortion coverage in a government-run insurance plan as well as in private plans funded by government subsidies.

“How surprising and appalling to see that a provision designed to curtail women’s right to abortion was slipped into the health care bill at the behest of a powerful religious group, a provision that reflects the doctrine of that group,” Lynn said.

President Barack Obama has remarked that he does not believe health care reform should change the “status quo” in regards to abortion. However, many moderate Senate Democrats say they will urge firm restrictions on abortion funding in the final health care bill.

Obama has not commented as to whether he will sign a bill with language that prohibits abortion funding.