Abortion, birth control access at issue in dispute over denial of grant to Catholic group
On the right the chant is “no tax dollars for Abortion!” and on the left the chant needs to be “No tax dollars for anti-choice groups!”. Since the Catholic group refuses to refer women to common and legal women’s health service solutions, they shouldn’t get tax dollars and the funds really do need to go to less narrow minded groups.
Republican lawmakers are objecting to the Department of Health and Human Services’ decision to deny an anti-human-trafficking grant to a Catholic group , a dispute that reflects deep divisions over access to abortion and birth control.
In late September, HHS ended funding to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to help victims of trafficking, or modern-day slavery. The church group had overseen nationwide services to victims since 2006 but was denied a new grant in favor of three other groups.
The bishops organization, in keeping with the church’s teachings, had refused to refer trafficking victims for contraceptives or abortion. HHS officials have said they made a policy decision to award the grants to agencies that would refer women for those services.In recent letters to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, more than 30 Republican lawmakers said the decision was unfair to the Catholic group and might violate federal laws banning discrimination based on religion. Two of the letters are seeking internal HHS documents relating to the decision and one, sent Monday by Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), said his investigative committee may issue subpoenas if HHS doesn’t comply.
Note that the GOP is once again furthering social issues instead of economic ones.