Obama Administration Stiffs Catholic Church over Abortion

Last night, Richard Doerflinger, Deputy Director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), spoke at a Wisconsin Right to Life Veritas Society event. He gave our audience a first hand account of how the Obama Administration stiffed the Catholic Church over pro-abortion ideology.

For the past three years, the USCCB received a $19 million federal grant from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to work with sex trafficking victims, providing food, shelter and counseling. This year, HHS changed the rules and adopted a policy giving “strong preference” to grant applicants that would offer “the full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care.” What that means in real terms is abortion referrals.

The Washington Post reports that internal HHS documents reveal the USCCB grant for the coming year was approved by an independent review committee but “senior political appointees” overrode the recommendation. According to Doerflinger, the USCCB had the top-graded grant proposal.

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokesperson for the USCCB, wrote in an October 13 blog post that “The USCCB program excelled because of its anytime-anywhere approach. Should an Immigration Enforcement official find a vulnerable child, for example, a call to the program got safe housing immediately. The program worked well on the ground, but not so well for distant administrators promoting the abortion and contraception agenda, who bristle at the fact that in accord with church teaching, USCCB won’t facilitate taking innocent life, sterilization and artificial contraception…..So much for the Obama administration’s guarantee of conscience protection.”

So sad for the poor victims of sex trafficking that the best and most experienced entity was stiffed. All in the name of abortion.

Barbara Lyons