Rep. Lynn Woolsey, a California Democrat dismayed by the House vote over the weekend to prohibit taxpayer subsidies for insurance policies that cover abortion in the healthcare overhaul, is saying maybe the IRS should investigate the tax-exempt status of the Catholic Church following its lobbying effort for the restriction.

“I expect political hardball on any legislation as important as the health care bill,” Woolsey writes in Politico. “I just didn’t expect it from the United States Council [sic] of Catholic Bishops … Who elected them to Congress?”

Abortion rights supporters say the restriction will effectively deny abortion for the low- and moderate-income women whom the healthcare overhaul is intended to insure. The U.S. Conference (not Council) of Catholic Bishops, which supports universal health insurance coverage but opposes abortion, lobbied hard for the restriction as the healthcare bill neared a vote on Saturday.

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien told us on Monday that it was appropriate for Catholics to make their beliefs known during the healthcare debate. “When it comes to abortion and research on human life, we can’t compromise on those things,” he said. “Once we get the foundation established that human life has to be respected, then let the debate go on as to what the health bill will contain.”

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