Bishops urge end to shutdown while calling for Obamacare abortion limits

Washington, D.C., Oct 17, 2025 / 12:10 pm (CNA).

America’s Catholic bishops are urging Congress to end the nearly three-week federal government shutdown by extending taxpayer subsidies that lower health insurance costs under the Affordable Care Act — but only if lawmakers ensure that the so-called Obamacare tax credits are not used for abortions or other procedures that violate Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life.

“The premium tax credits established by the ACA are an important tool for ensuring affordable access to health care for millions of Americans by lowering their premiums on the ACA marketplaces; but they also fund health insurance plans that cover elective abortion,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote in an Oct. 10 letter to members of Congress. The enhanced premium tax credits “should be extended but must not continue to fund plans that cover the destruction of human life, which is antithetical to authentic health care.”  

The letter marked the strongest indication yet that while the bishops’ conference largely agrees with congressional Democrats that Obamacare subsidies should be extended beyond their year-end expiration, it will oppose any deal that allows the premium tax credits to fund insurance plans that pay for abortions.

The bishops said U.S. health care policy should ensure that “all vulnerable people — born and preborn” — have access to affordable, comprehensive, and high-quality health care. Church leaders said such a policy would both extend the enhanced premium tax credits sought by Democrats and “apply full Hyde Amendment protections.”

The Hyde Amendment, passed by Congress in 1977, prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is at risk.

With its letter, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops entered the nearly three-week-long political battle between Capitol Hill Democrats and Republicans over how to resolve the standoff over reopening the federal government, which has been shuttered since Oct. 1. 

The critical divide between Democrats and Republicans centers on enhanced premium tax credits that, Democrats argue, help Americans pay their premiums purchased through the Obamacare insurance marketplaces. Democrats say that without a deal to extend the premium subsidies, Americans will see their insurance costs skyrocket over the next several weeks.

The Affordable Care Act, since it was enacted in 2010, has provided premium subsidies for people below certain income levels. In 2021, however, during the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden and a Democratic-controlled Congress said they were temporarily expanding ACA premium subsidies to increase the amount of government assistance to cover more people during the coronavirus emergency. Later, in August 2022, Biden and congressional Democrats again extended the enhanced subsidies for a period of three years, with the heightened tax benefits expiring at the end of 2025. Congressional Democrats now say they want again to extend enhanced health care premiums before open enrollment for Obamacare insurance plans starts on Nov. 1. 

Republicans counter, however, saying the enhanced premium credits were intended only to be a temporary emergency measure during the pandemic. They say more debate and discussion of details is needed to negotiate a long-term solution to the question of how best to enact enhanced ACA premium subsidies.

Republican leaders say Democrats are not interested in a bipartisan agreement. Instead, GOP leaders suggest Democrats are exploiting the issue to justify continuing the government shutdown to hurt President Donald Trump’s approval ratings ahead of the 2026 congressional midterm elections.

Republicans instead are calling on Democrats to help GOP lawmakers pass a “clean” continuing resolution that would immediately fund and reopen the government until at least Nov. 21. Only then, Republicans say they will sit down with congressional Democrats to negotiate proposals to improve and extend the enhanced federal premiums.

Democrats, however, have repeatedly rejected that approach, providing little hope the stalemate will end soon. On Thursday, Senate Democrats for the10th time since the onset of the shutdown used the so-called 60-vote rule — which allows a minority of senators to block legislation through a filibuster — to refuse to back a continuing resolution passed largely along party lines by the GOP-led House on Sept. 19. The vote to reopen the government with a short-term, GOP-backed stopgap measure was 51-45, well short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill. 

Three non-Republican senators — Democrats John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, along with Sen. Angus S. King Jr. of Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats — voted to end the shutdown. One Republican – Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky – voted with Democrats in rejecting the GOP-backed funding bill to reopen the government. Four senators did not vote.

With both sides seemingly unwilling to budge, some Catholic health ministries and neighborhood relief organizations say the true victims of the impasse are vulnerable communities across the country.

Catholic Health Association also applying pressure

“The shutdown and standoff are just causing pain across the country, and both sides need to come together and do their jobs to fund and run the government,” said Lisa A. Smith, vice president for advocacy and public policy for the Catholic Health Association of the United States. “The longer this drags on, the more difficult it is for our Catholic facilities to care for everyone.” She said it is “critical” that Congress act to extend the ACA premium tax credits before open enrollment begins on Nov. 1.

In a break with the U.S. bishops’ stance, Smith said there are already “adequate protections in the current law to ensure taxpayers are not paying for abortions.” She said the laws already on the books prohibit the use of federal funds, “including premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions, to pay for abortion services except in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment—as defined by the Hyde Amendment.”