We all know that a big issue relates to the proposed subsidization of individual health insurance plans in the exchange, some of which might cover abortion. The debate resolves around how best to minimize the proximity of taxpayer funds to every occasion of abortion, with the proviso that the procedure will remain legal. It’s tricky. But when we get deeper into this issue, we can go far further than abortion (there is a curious tendency among some to begin and end every discussion of morality with abortion).
I’m talking here about the single largest item in the federal budget – defense and military spending. Even if you accept the premise that funding a military in itself is not immoral, you cannot get past the fact that you are most certainly funding activities that are indeed immoral. The Iraq war was immoral. The continued accumulation of nuclear weapons is immoral. Torture is intrinsically evil – and yet the taxpayer under the Bush administration at least was paying for the various CIA programs that tortured people. Where were the calls of conscientious Catholics to de-fund these activities at that time? And what about the $3 billion a year flowing from the American taxpayer to the Israeli military, as it commits war crimes in Gaza?
Yes, the funding of the abortion merely begins the debate, doesn’t it? And for that matter, let’s talk about conscience protections too. The church also supports selective conscientious objection in the military. How come we don’t hear about this so much?
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