So Much for Worrying About Conscience Clauses

At the Catholic World Report , Philip F. Lawler reports that Caritas Christi, the healthcare arm of the archdiocese of Boston, has bid on a contract from the state of Massachusetts that “explicitly stipulated that coverage must include provisions for abortion, contraception, and sterilization”:

The involvement of Caritas Christi in the bidding for this government contract drew careful scrutiny from both the pro-life movement and the abortion industry. Pro-lifers in Massachusetts asked for assurances from Church leaders that the Catholic health care system, which operates six hospitals and enlists the services of 2,000 physicians in the Boston area, would not perform abortions or make abortion referrals. Abortion advocates, on the other hand, demanded assurances from state regulators that the Catholic agency would not interfere with women’s unrestricted access to abortion. The abortion advocates soon received the guarantees they wanted. Pro-lifers did not.