By Kathleen Gilbert
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 29, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards has given her highest accolades to the social justice lobby of Roman Catholic nuns who “broke with the bishops and the Vatican” to support the health care bill that is set to unleash federal funding for abortion.
“In the final days before the bill was passed, it was the Roman Catholic nuns who most importantly broke with the bishops and the Vatican to announce their support for health care reform,” gushed Richards in a Huffington Post column March 24, referring to the social justice lobby Network.
“This brave and important move, demonstrating that they cared as much about the health care of families in America as they did about church hierarchy, was a critical demonstration of support,” she continued. “Bart Stupak may not ask the nuns for advice, as he recently announced to the press, but maybe next time he should.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as well as several individual bishops came out strongly against the final version of the health care legislation because it did not allay serious concerns regarding abortion funding and conscience protection for pro-life health care professionals. Yet, in a break that even the White House credited as a major step forward for the bill, several “Catholic” groups flouted the bishops' leadership to support it.
One of these groups was Network, a left-leaning lobby group composed of Roman Catholic nuns whom the USCCB's Sr. Mary Ann Walsh rebuked as having “grossly overstated” their level of representation of U.S. Catholic nuns.
Following Network's announcement, the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, another nationwide group representing Catholic nuns, issued a statement backing the U.S. bishops' condemnation of the bill.
Richards lumped “the nuns” together with leading pro-abortion female lawmakers on Capitol Hill as women who “need our gratitude and our support” for helping pass the bill pro-life leaders have decried as the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.