While Conservative Catholics Grab Media Attention On Abortion Issue, Liberal-Leaning Nuns Push Progressive Healthcare Causes Which Most Catholics Support

Yesterday, President Biden awarded Sister Simone Campbell the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, for her 40 years of work advocating on issues of poverty, justice, and healthcare. Sister Campbell is the executive director of Network, a national Catholic social justice advocacy organization. She represents a longstanding Catholic tradition with respect to pursuing social justice.

Opposition to abortion is another tenet of the Catholic faith, based on sanctity of life. And, after the momentous decision last month by the Supreme Court to void Roe vs. Wade, the abortion wars are in full swing. Some blame Catholics for rolling back federally guaranteed abortion rights. Three recently appointed conservative Catholic Supreme Court Justices did play a key role in the decision to rescind Roe vs. Wade.

Yet, the matter of abortion is decidedly complicated. Most American Catholics have a nuanced perspective on abortion. Approximately two-thirds of American Catholics oppose the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. Furthermore, 76% believe abortion should be legal in some cases but illegal in others, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

Views among Catholics on issues such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are also complex. In 2012, conservative Catholic Supreme Court Justices Alito and Thomas voted to repeal the ACA. Though not technically part of the case (which was about whether the federal government could impose penalties on those who didn’t purchase health insurance), what bothered conservative Catholics most about the ACA was the inclusion of a coverage mandate for contraceptives, and, what some perceived as, the granting of too big a role for the federal government in healthcare. Ultimately, the bid to reverse the ACA failed, as another Catholic, Chief Justice Roberts, cast the deciding vote to uphold the individual mandate as an exercise of Congress’s power to tax.

Notably, the conventional Catholic view on access to healthcare sees it as a human right – at least up to a basic minimum level of care – which is owed by the community to each of its citizens. Correspondingly, the majority of American Catholics strongly support the Affordable Care Act, specifically statutory provisions designed to assist the poor and other vulnerable groups.

In some ways, this progressivism isn’t surprising, as is illustrated by the role that liberal-leaning Catholic nuns have played for more than 150 years as they’ve pushed progressive healthcare causes, and taken action in pursuit of a more equitable healthcare system.

In recent times, the focus has been affordability of and universal access to healthcare, but also transparency on the part of key stakeholders in the healthcare system, such as pharmaceutical companies.

A Catholic order of nuns and an investment organization are now pushing several large drug firms to be more transparent in regard to their lobbying efforts in Washington DC.

The Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic, a group of Roman Catholic nuns based in Ossining, New York, and a Vancouver-based association of institutional investors known as the Shareholder Association for Research and Education, are seeking to establish third-party reviews of the lobbying activity carried out by three pharmaceutical giants; Johnson & Johnson, Gilead Sciences and Eli Lilly.

This closely aligns with the work of Sister Nora Nash. As director of the corporate social responsibility office for the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, an order of approximately 400 Roman Catholic nuns, Nash has worked for many years to alter the behavior of companies that populate the nuns’ stock portfolio. Here, the focus has been to encourage more corporate responsibility with an emphasis on reducing social inequities.

Founding hospitals and insurance plans

Historically, liberal-minded nuns have found themselves on the forefront of forward-thinking change. For example, nuns helped found the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in the late 1800s. Mother Alfred recognized that the growing city of Rochester needed a hospital. Mother Alfred’s vision for a hospital – a place for active medical intervention – was revolutionary for its day. As late as 1890, there were only three hospitals in Minnesota outside of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Mother Alfred approached Dr. Mayo with a proposal. The Sisters of St. Francis would build the hospital and supply the nursing staff, if Dr. Mayo would provide the medical staff.

Earlier, in 1871, a sister of mercy, Mother de Pazzi, was instrumental in paving the way for a similarly revolutionary change in healthcare insurance provision. She helped found the St. John’s Hospital. In conjunction with the hospital’s founding, Mother de Pazzi worked with the United Railways Company on the nation’s first prepaid health insurance plan.

Support for the Affordable Care Act

Given the Affordable Care Act’s focus on improving equitable access to healthcare, it stood to reason that many progressive nuns would support the legislation. In 2010, a large coalition of nuns sent a letter to Congress in support of the healthcare bill. The nuns’ position contrasted with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposed the legislation, mainly because it included coverage of contraceptives. The Bishops also argued that the bill could lead to the funding of abortions.

Among nuns, there were also some important differences. The Little Sisters of the Poor, challenged the ACA’s contraceptive mandate, objecting to having to provide “abortifacients and contraceptives” to their employees.

But, Sister Simone Campbell, disagreed. “From our reading of the bill, there isn’t any federal funding of abortion.” She went on to say that “for us, first of all, tens of thousands of people are dying each year because they don’t have access to healthcare, so that is a life issue.”

Subsequently, when the Affordable Care Act came under threat in the fall of 2020, Campbell spearheaded efforts to defend the legislation. Healthcare experts from several liberal-leaning organizations joined Sister Simone Campbell for the so-called “Nuns on the Bus” Health Care Rally. At the virtual rally, Campbell asserted that “scripture calls on us to care for the sick and elderly, and meeting that obligation in this election has never been more vital.” Sister Campbell was urging Catholics to vote to preserve the ACA. At the time, she was especially worried about the Trump Administration’s support for two lower court rulings that could lead to the repeal of the ACA.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a practicing Catholic, has claimed that “without the Nuns on the Bus, we would never have passed the Affordable Care Act.”

In the spirit of social justice, many Catholics have defended ACA legislation that, in their eyes, seeks to address structural inequities in society.

This even includes presumably controversial items, such as coverage of contraception. In a study conducted by Dr. Patton and colleagues at the University of Michigan, 63% of women who identified as Catholic support requiring employers to provide contraception coverage, with no co-payments for employees. Even among the “highly religious” subgroup – women who attend church services weekly or more often – nearly 50% approve of the contraception mandate.

Despite misgivings about the contraception mandate, even the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged the Trump Administration not to repeal the ACA. In a letter to Congress in January 2017, Bishop DeWane, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committee on domestic justice, wrote that while the group initially opposed the ACA on the grounds that it expanded the role of the federal government in funding birth control, it nevertheless acknowledged that the “law has brought about important gains in coverage and those gains should be protected.” A majority of lay Catholics support the ACA for precisely this reason.

Invariably, there is going to be a broad spectrum of opinion among people of any faith about social, economic, and political issues. Catholicism isn’t unique in this regard. But, it’s important to note that while conservatives Catholics have been the focus of media attention in recent months, the majority of American Catholics support progressive healthcare causes. It’s a long-established tradition in America that was started more than 150 years ago by progressive Catholic nuns.