Earlier this month, the nation was barraged with media coverage of the Catholic Bishops’ opposition to regulations promulgated under the Affordable Care Act protecting working women’s access to contraception. The loudness of the bishops’ complaints, which were echoed by conservative luminaries ranging from Speaker John Boehner to GOP presidential frontrunners Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, easily could have conveyed the misimpression that churches and other
religious groups are at odds with the Affordable Care Act.

On Friday, however, a broad coalition of religious organizations filed an amicus brief supporting the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion that should give the lie to any claim that the faith community opposes the ACA. The brief includes a number of major religious denominations, including the policy arm of the United Methodist Church, the General Synod of the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church. Additionally, the brief’s signatories include a wide range of
Catholic groups:


Benedictine Sisters, Boerne, Texas; Congregation of the
Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Texas; Dominican Congregation
of Our Lady of the Rosary, New York; Dominican Sisters of Hope; Justice
and Peace Committee of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield,
Massachusetts; Marianist Province of the United States; Sisters of
Charity of St. Elizabeth Leadership Team, New Jersey; Sisters of Charity
of St. Vincent De Paul of New York; Sisters of the Holy Cross
Congregation Justice Committee; Sisters of the Incarnate Word and
Blessed Sacrament, Corpus Christi, Texas; Sisters of Mercy West Midwest
Justice Team, Nebraska; Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, Missouri;
Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, New York;
Sisters of St. Dominic Congregation of the Most Holy Name; Society of
the Holy Child Jesus, American Province Leadership Team; Ursuline
Sisters of Tildonk, US Province; JOLT, Catholic Coalition for
Responsible Investing; Region VI Coalition for Responsible Investment,
Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee; School Sisters of Notre Dame Cooperative
Investment Fund

None of this religious support for the ACA should be surprising. After all, all that these religious groups are doing is following Psalm 82′s command to “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; [and] deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

Pope Benedict XVI has called health care an “inalienable right,” and added that it is the “moral responsibility of nations to guarantee access to health care for all of their citizens.”


http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/02/21/429184/religious-groups-line-up-to-support-affordable-care-act/?mobile=nc