USCCB says no

It’s official: the Catholic bishops have come out against the health-care bill.

This despite the fact that neither their argument (that the current version of the bill fails to uphold the abortion-funding status quo ) nor their characterization
of this status quo as “exclud[ing] abortion from all health insurance
plans receiving federal subsidies” happens to be entirely true, or the fact that universal health care would do a lot to protect the unborn, to say nothing of the born.

Meanwhile, there is high drama
in the (always titillating!) world of congressional procedural
strategy. I haven’t taken a personal day to sit home and watch C-SPAN
since the 2000 election—actually, back then I was skipping class, not
work—but this might be the week.

UPDATE: Thanks to commenter PS(anafter-thought), who pointed out something I missed earlier today: leaders representing 59,000 Catholic sisters have joined the Catholic Health Association in opposing the bishops and supporting reform. Meanwhile, Rep. Bart Stupak is losing allies among anti-abortion Catholic Democrats in the House.