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At the center of Catholic health care, and what often distinguishes it from other forms of health care, is the fundamental principle of the dignity and right to life of every human being, especially the poor and vulnerable. Catholic teaching insists that basic health care is essential to protect human life and dignity and, therefore, access to that health care is a right. However, the only system of health care that can be acceptable for Catholics is one that is truly universal, i.e. one that assures basic care for all from conception to natural death.

While the reform of health care in our country is no easy task, there are elements of that reform which we Catholics must insist on. First and foremost is the exclusion of any government funding of abortion and any mandated abortion coverage in health plans. At present no proposed plan of reform explicitly excludes these. President Obama has insisted on more than one occasion that under his plan for health-care reform "no federal dollars will be used to fund abortion." However, what we have seen from the congressional committees working on programs of reform does not reflect the president’s pledge, regardless of what many have heard or read. Nothing short of an explicit exclusion of abortion funding and mandated abortion coverage will be acceptable to the bishops of the United States and, I pray, to every Catholic citizen.

Also of grave concern in this whole matter is the protection of conscience rights for health care workers and for every American taxpayer. No person should be forced to participate in abortion or to support abortion with his or her tax dollars. On Oct. 8, the American bishops wrote: "No one should be required to pay for or participate in abortion. It is essential that the legislation clearly apply to this new program the longstanding and widely supported federal restrictions on abortion funding and mandates, and protections for rights of conscience. No current bill meets this test. If acceptable language in these areas cannot be found, we will have to oppose the health care bill vigorously."

Although President Obama spoke of his respect for the rights of every person’s conscience both at Notre Dame and in his meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, those words do not seem to be validated by the actions of his administration. Case in point: Belmont Abbey College, a small Benedictine-run Catholic college in North Carolina. Belmont Abbey College removed contraception, abortion and voluntary sterilization from its faculty health care policy after discovering that it had accidentally been part of the plan. Some employees of the college brought suit against the administration. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) at first found no grounds for the suit but very quickly reversed itself and is now demanding that the school violate its own religious and ethical principles. This course of action by the EEOC does not bode well for the support of conscience rights in this administration’s reform of health care.

At this decisive moment in the history of our country I, together with all the bishops of the United States, call upon all the Catholics of the Diocese of Colorado Springs to make our voices heard by our legislators. Please contact your senators and representative this week. Ask them to withhold support from any proposed legislation that does not explicitly exclude government-funded subsidies for abortions and which does not explicitly uphold the conscience rights of every citizen.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has produced a helpful one-page plan of action to help each of us call on our legislators to give us a truly life-affirming and comprehensive reform of health care. Don’t underestimate the power of your voice. The Catholic community has tremendous credibility in this debate because of our long history of providing health care in this country and throughout the world.