Catholic bishops did nothing wrong in pressing Congress to bar federal funding of abortion in the Democrats’ health care reform bills, and any IRS investigation resulting from the bishops’ stance would be construed as harassment, the Catholic League said on Wednesday.
The Catholic League was responding to a Democratic lawmaker, who questioned whether the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) violated federal law by lobbying for an amendment banning federal funding of abortion.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), in a November 9 op-ed on the Politico Web site, said that in light of heavy pressure from USCCB against federal funding for abortion, the Internal Revenue Service should investigate whether the organization exceeded the limitations of its tax-exempt status – a move that could lead the Internal Revenue Service to revoke that status.
Woolsey’s comments came after USCCB lobbied pro-life Democrats to support the efforts of Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who sponsored an amendment prohibiting federal funding of abortion through any of the health insurance subsidies created by the House health care bill.
Stupak said if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) didn’t allow his amendment to come to a vote, he would block the entire bill from coming to the floor. After lobbying by Stupak, USCCB, and other pro-life groups, Pelosi allowed the amendment to come to a vote, and it passed with bipartisan support.
USCCB made it clear that it would not support any health care bill that allowed federal funding of abortion in any way. “Abortion is not health care,” the bishops insisted.
Woolsey – who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus – said the USCCB should have stayed out of the legislative process: “The role the bishops played in the pushing of the Stupak amendment, which unfairly restricts access for low-income women to insurance coverage of abortion, was more than mere advocacy,” she wrote in the Politico piece.
