(An interesting analysis of what the Religious Right is really fighting for when it fights against health care reform. Taken from an article in the Guardian by Stephen Bates)

Opposition to healthcare reform might seem an odd issue to energise Christians, even those on the religious right: isn’t the whole point of the message of Jesus Christ to love and care for those less fortunate than oneself, in sickness as well as health?

What is uniting the religious right opposition to the healthcare plans though is, as ever, the issue of abortion and whether the reforms will in any way facilitate, or pay for, the provision of terminations. The president says they won’t, some religious leaders say they will, by default if not by explicit provision. Once again the issue serves to unite religious groups who otherwise would have little in common theologically, doctrinally or even ethically.

John Brehany, executive director of the Catholic Medical Association, has warned that conscience rights for doctors not to perform procedures they ethically oppose must be explicit in the legislation: "As things stand, abortion could be a required benefit in all health insurance plans and it would be subsidised not only in healthcare premiums, but also through taxation. This unjust mandate must be excluded." This is not a negligible consideration – in a system reliant on private healthcare provision, organisations such as the Catholic church play a major part – the church runs 624 hospitals across the US – and other religious denominations also maintain hospitals.

There is a certain irony to all this, in that abortion never used to be seen as such a crucial dividing factor in American life and morality. In the mid-19th century it is estimated that one in six pregnancies in the US was terminated by abortion and in the 1950s and 60s there were more than 1m backstreet abortions each year. As recently as 1967 botched terminations were the prime killer of pregnant women. Doubtless the churches spoke out against this, but they certainly did not make it a crucial issue of moral and social justice in the political life of the country.

In 1974 – the year after the seminal supreme court Roe vs Wade judgment, which paved the way to legalised abortion – the maternal mortality rate in New York dropped by 45% and, in fact, the court decision was initially welcomed by many religious leaders. The Baptist Press declared: "Religious liberty, human equality and justice are advanced by the supreme court decision." The Catholic church indeed opposed the ruling – in fairly muted terms – but it was only later that opposition to abortions became a defining issue for some Christians.

And certainly, at the moment, religious groups are far from standing united against the healthcare plans. Many more liberal Christians – and indeed Muslim and Jewish leaders – are also rallying to support the administration’s proposals. They are doing so on religious grounds themselves: that there is an ethical obligation to look after the weak and the sick. They are calling on their supporters to oppose the rightwing shock-jocks and commentators spreading untruths about the proposals and they have sponsored a television advertisement urging reform. The Rev John Hay of Indianapolis, featured on the advert, said current health provision "is no way for the most blessed country in the world to treat its most vulnerable citizens. This is as much a crisis of faith as it is a crisis of healthcare."

But just as Republicans see destabilising the Obama administration’s healthcare plans as a way of undermining the Democrats and reviving their own political fortunes, so do some on the religious right – and in just as nakedly political a way. Professor D Michael Lindsay, a sociologist of Rice University, told the Washington Post: "Movements do better when they have something to oppose. It is easier to fund raise … easier to mobilise volunteers because you have an us versus them mentality and that plays very well right now for the Christian Right."

Not dead, as Richard Land would say, nor sleeping. And happy to pick an issue at odds with what the Bible tells them about compassion, love and charity. Whether they will win this time is another matter…