Anti-Catholic Bigotry Alive and Well in MoCo

I just picked up my copy of the Montgomery County Gazette to find that anti-Catholic bigotry is alive and well in Montgomery County, Maryland. (Actually, that is not really true, it has been alive and well for a long time esp. in the County Council and the Maryland State legislature, but that is another story.)

According to the Gazette:

As the battle for which private hospital can call upcounty its home picks up speed, some critics say Holy Cross Hospital, governed by Catholic religious doctrine, provides less health care coverage than any other hospital in the area and should not be allowed to expand.

But Holy Cross counters that many of the services it is morally prohibited from providing are not usually performed in a hospital anyway and that its charity work more than makes up for the few services it cannot offer.

The discussion about what Holy Cross can and can not do for its patients has heated up this month as the state's commission reviews a proposal for Holy Cross, which announced in August 2008 a plan to build a 93-bed hospital on Montgomery College's campus in Germantown, and another proposal for Adventist HealthCare, which announced in April a plan to build a 100-bed hospital on part of a health care campus in Clarksburg. It is unlikely the commission will approve both hospitals, and it has not yet set a date for when it will make a decision.

So who are the bigots that oppose this? Well, it is the usual suspects:*

• NOW - Montgomery County Chapter (aka NAGS)
• Planned Parenthood of Metro Washington (largest abortion provider)
• National Women's Law Center
• American United for the Separation of Church and State
• Pro-Choice Maryland
• MergerWatch Project

In fact, the paper goes on to say (and I think that it is a pretty balanced article) that Holy Cross treated about 9,000 uninsured patients in the Silver Spring area. Wow!

I would love to see the bigots step up to the plate and do even 50% of that amount.

So, PP, NAGs, Pro-Abortion Maryland, instead of trying to stop Holy Cross, why don't you start your own hospital/clinic and offer the level of free service that they do.

Bigots. Plain and simple.

*Note, the paper edition (A-7) names the bigots. The on-line version does not.

UPDATE (7:40am): The Washington Examiner has this story, including the bigoted opposition on the Montgomery County Council.