Citing the bishops’ long-standing belief that all Americans must have access to quality, affordable health care, Saile said the president’s speech must be followed up with the appropriate changes in legislation currently pending in both houses of Congress.

As currently written, the leading piece of legislation in the House, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, known as H.R. 3200, allows for federal funding of abortion. Language continues to be worked on in Senate reform measures.

Acknowledging that “serious significant details need to be ironed out,” Saile said that “we need to look at actual language that fixes provisions that are in existing bills.”

“We look forward to working with (Obama) to ensure that what is in the final bill, that there is no federal funding (of abortion), no mandates (to pay for abortion) and no requirement of people to pay for other people’s abortions,” Saile said.

Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, echoed Saile in a Sept. 10 statement.

“We believe that incorporating essential and long-standing federal laws on these issues into any new proposal will strengthen support for health care reform,” Doerflinger said, pledging to work with Congress and the White House to ensure that current legislation is amended.

Sr. Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who is president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, told CNS that while much work remains on amending the legislation she was pleased by Obama’s stance.

“We were gratified to hear that federal funds would not be used for abortions and that conscience protections would be maintained,” she said. “We were pleased to hear him say we were going to move on now.”

Meanwhile, a group of pro-life legislators and organizations, led by Rep. Chris Smith, challenged the president’s position that health care reform legislation would not include abortion funding. Calling Obama’s statements to Congress misleading, Smith said during a Sept. 10 Capitol Hill news conference that an analysis of H.R. 3200 shows that funding for abortion remains in place.

“Despite what Obama said, the House bill would allow abortions to be covered by a federal plan and by federally subsidized private (insurance) plans,” Smith said.

“President Obama must be held accountable for his words,” Smith added. “If he intends to support the pro-life amendments that have thus far been deleted by pro-abortion members of his party, we will welcome that. But the truth is that he seeks to cover up his intention to use the government-run public plan to send cheques from the U.S. Treasury to abortionists.”