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Email: "Pro-Life Leaders Challenge CHA to Prove Pro-Life Dedication"

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BY LifeSiteNews.com By Kathleen GilbertWASHINGTON, D.C., June 24, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Several major pro-life leaders are urging the Catholic Health Association (CHA) to back a pro-life amendment to the federal health care law, days after the organization reiterated its support for health reform, thereby breaking with the leadership of U.S. bishops who have decried the vast abortion funding embedded in the legislation.At CHA's annual summit last week, President Obama, who played an active role in convincing the group to break with the bishops' pro-life stand, praised the group for supporting the measure in a videotaped message. CHA President Sr. Carol Keehan's support for the health reform law has been widely recognized as having been crucial for the bill's ultimate success.At a meeting in St. Petersburg, Fla. last week, Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), reiterated his condemnation of CHA for stubbornly supporting the pro-abortion bill. He called CHA’s position a "wound to Catholic unity" that provided political cover for Catholic Democrats to fall in line behind the bill.In response CHA continued to defend itself, issuing a statement Tuesday lauding the measure's provisions extending health coverage to the uninsured. But in a letter dated Thursday, pro-life leaders called upon CHA President Sr. Carol Keehan to prove CHA’s dedication to pro-life Catholic principles by supporting an amendment that would halt the flow of taxpayer funds for abortion under the new law. Signatories to the letter include leaders with the Susan B. Anthony List, the Catholic Medical Association, Americans United for Life, Family Research Council Action, and other top pro-life and Catholic groups."A core group of pro-life Democrats looked to you for leadership in their decision to vote for the healthcare bill with only an Executive Order to address protection of the unborn and consciences of healthcare providers and taxpayers," wrote the leaders. "You are in a position now to use your leadership to support a vital bill that will amend the new healthcare law to permanently protect Life."The group urged Keehan to respond "as soon as possible" with her support for the Protect Life Act offered by Congressmen Joe Pitts (R-PA) and Daniel Lipinski (D-IL). The proposed amendment currently has 108 bi-partisan co-sponsors.Although Obama issued an executive order meant to ensure that no federal funds would go to abortion just after the bill's passage in March, the group of pro-life signatories reminded CHA that there can be "no guarantee that abortion funding will be excluded without statutory language preventing federal funds from covering and/or subsidizing abortion in the healthcare bill."  Pro-life leaders and independent analysts have largely concluded that the executive order does little or nothing to change the content of the bill."As we have seen numerous times in the past, if abortion coverage is not explicitly excluded from legislation it is implicitly included," they wrote. "In order to ensure that unborn life is protected in this bill, H.R. 5111 needs to become law." http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pro-life-leaders-challenge-cha-to-prove-pro-life-dedication/

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