Accidental Blogger

Defying the Catholic church's traditional hierarchy, US nuns have come out in support of the health care bill.

Their numbers and influence may be declining, but American nuns demonstrated Wednesday what generations of schoolchildren already knew: They are a force to be reckoned with.

By sending a letter to Congress in support of the Senate health care bill, a wide coalition of nuns took sides against not only the Republican minority but against their own church hierarchy, as represented by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposes the bill. The nuns' letter contributed to the momentum in favor of the legislation, despite opposition that is partially rooted in a disagreement over abortion funding.

"We agree that there shouldn't be any federal funding of abortion," said Sister Simone Campbell, the executive director of Network, a national Catholic social justice advocacy organization that spearheaded the effort. "From our reading of the bill, there isn't any federal funding of abortion."

Moreover, she said, the reverence for life that underpins Catholic opposition to abortion also argues for passage of health care reform. "For us, first of all, tens of thousands of people are dying each year because they don't have access to health care, so that is a life issue," she said.

Campbell said her organization, which has long supported health care reform, drafted the letter within hours of hearing that the Catholic Health Association, which represents some 600 hospitals, had come out in favor of the bill last week. The letter was signed by the leaders of more than 50 Catholic women's orders and organizations, including the Leadership Conference for Women Religious, which says it represents more than 90 percent of the 59,000 American Catholic nuns.

The courage of the nuns is being characterized as backstabbing by an anti-Obama Catholic news site.