CV NEWS FEED // Leaders of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) denounced the Biden administration for attempting to massively fund abortions with taxpayer dollars through the Build Back Better Act, the Democrats’ proposed $3.5 reconciliation bill.
The text of the bill “funds abortion, the deliberate destruction of our most vulnerable brothers and sisters – those in the womb,” wrote Archbishop Joseph Naumann, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Archbishop Paul Coakley, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development in a statement Friday.
“This cannot be included,” the bishops stated. “Congress can, and must, turn back from including taxpayer funding of abortion, in the Build Back Better Act.”
The statement was only the latest of several, including a number of letters the bishops have sent to President Biden and members of congress pleading with Democrats to respect unborn life and taxpayers by including protections against abortion funding in their funding bills.
The bishops have been largely spurned by the Biden administration and by Democrats.
Joe Manchin, D-WV, a moderate Democrat and a Catholic, has also spoken out against removing pro-life protections such as the Hyde Amendment from spending bills.
In addition, Manchin has said he will refuse to vote for the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill currently under consideration, suggesting that its price tag is irresponsibly high and that it could lead to future crises while undercutting America’s financial ability to respond adequately.
As CatholicVote reported:
Manchin described the current approach in Congress as establishing “an artificial $3.5 trillion spending number and then reverse-engineering the partisan social priorities that should be funded,” which “isn’t how you make good policy.”
Inflation, which is still on the rise, “is bleeding the value of Americans’ wages and income,” Manchin pointed out. He also suggested that the massive, Biden-backed spending bill is not a product of truly compassionate motives, but is rather an exercise in political and social engineering.
In their statement this week, the bishops urged “all members of Congress and the Administration to work in good faith to advance important and life-saving healthcare provisions without forcing Americans to pay for the deliberate destruction of unborn human life.”
