Sound Principles for Health-Care Reform

Posted by Tom McFeely

Monday, September 21, 2009 2:39 PM

President Obama at a Sept. 17 health-care rally. (Reuters)

In this article, EWTN’s director of communications, Michelle Laque Johnson, offers two simple and easy-to-follow principles that, if followed, could easily assuage pro-life concerns about President Barack Obama’s health-care reform initiative.

Here they are:

Principle No. 1: Legislation must be written clearly so that there is absolutely no ambiguity about what Congress intends.
Principle No. 2: Those who are writing the legislation and/or explaining it to the American people must tell the truth about what is in the bill.

It’s hard to see why anyone who is being honest and upfront about their objectives in the health-care reform debate would object to adopting Johnson’s pair of principles. But when it comes to concerns raised by pro-life advocates about possible funding of services related to abortion or euthanasia, neither Obama nor the congressional Democrat leadership have been willing to adhere to these principles.

Why not? No one knows for sure. But given this obfuscation, Obama and the congressional Democrats shouldn’t be surprised their health-care reform plan continues to face stiff resistance from Americans who understandably want to know exactly what will be included in the plan.

As Johnson says,

It is not impossible for Americans to agree about universal health care. What remains to be seen is whether lawmakers are willing to explain to the American people — both in their legislation and in their public statement — what they really mean.

Filed under abortion, barack obama, euthanasia, health care reform