Archbishop JosÈ H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is seen at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome 2020. Photo: CNS The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act heading to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature will provide relief to Americans in need amid the pandemic, but it lacks “protections for the unborn”, the US bishops said.
Their March 10 statement quickly followed US House passage of the measure in a 220-211 vote. Biden was expected to sign it into law the afternoon of March 12.
In a joint statement, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the chairmen of six USCCB committees praised “positive provisions” that “will save people from extremely desperate situations and will likely save lives”.
But they called it “unconscionable” that Congress passed the bill “without critical protections needed to ensure that billions of taxpayer dollars are used for life-affirming health care and not for abortion”.
“As the American Rescue Plan Act was being written, Catholic bishops reached out to every House and Senate office to express our support for providing additional relief to help poor and vulnerable people who are most at risk of harm from this pandemic, and our strong conviction that this relief should also protect the unborn and their right to life,” the bishops said.
“We are grateful this legislation addresses many positive provisions, including unemployment assistance, child and earned income tax credit enhancements, nutrition funding, vaccine distribution funding, health care funding, housing assistance, international assistance to regions stricken by Covid, conflict and hunger,” they said.
But “unlike previous Covid relief bills”, the bishops said, “sponsors of the American Rescue Plan Act refused to include the long-standing, bipartisan consensus policy to prohibit taxpayer dollars from funding abortions domestically and internationally”.
The measure includes $17 billion for vaccine-related activities and programs and $110 billion for other efforts to contain the pandemic; $130 billion for public schools; and $143 billion to expand child tax credit, childcare tax credit and earned income tax credit mostly for one year.
It expressly provides $50 million for family planning, but as the bishops noted in their statement, and other national pro-life leaders have said, funding allocated in other provisions can be used for abortion.
In addition to Archbishop Gomez, the committee chairmen who signed the statement are: Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, Committee on Pro-Life Activities; Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; Bishop David Malloy of Rockford, Committee on International Justice and Peace; Bishop Michael Barber of Oakland, California, Committee on Catholic Education; Bishop Shelton Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux, Louisiana, Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism; and Auxiliary Bishop Mario Dorsonville of Washington, Committee on Migration.