On Health Care, Drawing the Line... One More Time

With the House of Representatives looking to vote on a health-care reform plan as soon as tomorrow, yet with the church's standard on a package still unmet, the three US bishops charged with leading the body's response sent an "urgent message" to all 435 Congresspeople earlier today with renewed calls for a ban on abortion funding and support for conscience protections, coverage for immigrants irrespective of their legal status and a plea against a "closed rule" review of a bill that would not allow new amendments to be added to it.

Here below is the fulltext of the letter (all emphases original), signed by the USCCB chairs for Pro-Life Activities, Domestic Policy and Migration -- respectively, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, Bishops William Murphy of Rockville Centre and John Wester of Salt Lake City:

The last-minute Hill push follows last weekend's nationwide effort to mobilize parishioners to contact their representatives and urge them to "fix these bills" with the bishops' favored pro-life changes.

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