Boston Catholic health agency in partnership providing abortion coverage
June 08, 2009
Caritas Christi, the health-care system affiliated with the Archdiocese of Boston, has entered into a partnership that will provide coverage for abortion, sterilization, and contraception under the terms of a state government contract. Celticare Health Plan-- a new offering, which describes itself as “a partnership between Celtic Group, a subsidiary of Centene Corporation, and Caritas Christi Health Care”-- is now offering several options for health-care coverage, with all of the available plans advertising abortion coverage.
The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, noting the coverage of abortion and other services in the Celticare plans, charged: "The question of Caritas Christi’s involvement in practices which violate fundamental Catholic moral teaching has now been answered repeatedly and definitively." C. J. Doyle, the executive director of the Catholic Action League, urged Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley to apologize for his March 6 statement that anyone suggesting Caritas Christi involvement with abortion would be "doing a great disservice to the Catholic Church."
Cardinal O'Malley's statement had conveyed an assurance that Caritas Christi would never be involved with abortions or abortion referrals. The cardinal made that statement in response to concerns that the Celticare health plans-- formed in order to win a state contract to provide health coverage for low-income Massachusetts residents-- would require the Caritas Christi system to become involved in morally unacceptable services. The state contract-- and with it, the involvement of Caritas Christi in the Celticare plans-- goes into effect on July 1.
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