USCCB and community health centers

The USCCB has written a rather good letter on budgetary matters, calling for “Congress to place the needs of poor, unemployed, hungry, and other vulnerable people first, both home and abroad”. The letter puts the life issue front and central, supporting the retention of “appropriations riders against abortion funding”.  A few sentences later it decries the cuts to community health centers: “The USCCB has long called on Congress to work to ensure adequate and life-giving health care coverage to those in need. The proposed cut to Community Health Centers will deny health care to nearly eleven million poor and vulnerable people including mothers and children at risk. These centers are often the only access to health care for tens of millions of people in our country.”

I assume that the USCCB no longer entertains the possibility that the community health centers are funding abortions. Otherwise, they would never have made such a strong and unequivocal statement. This is good. One of the lowest points in the entire health care debate was the attack on community health centers, which are devoted to providing basic health care to tens of millions of poor and the marginalized people. This attack, which I believe originated with the National Right to Life Committee, was part of a shameless attempt to use any means possible to delegitimize the Affordable Care Act. At the time, the USCCB caught caught up with this bandwagon. Now, as the same people who want to repeal the Affordable Care Act are trying to defund the community health centers, their true value becomes evident. Of course, I would argue that the baseless attacks on community health centers paved the way for this attempt to strip away their funding. The USCCB, which had the best of intentions during the health care debate, made some pretty blinkered decisions. Thankfully, they seem to have found their voice again.