The Stupak Amendment lays bare a basic split in thinking over healthcare policy--actually two splits.
First split: Is national healthcare about health, or is it about politics? "Progressives" deny any distinction between health and politics; to them, healthcare is politics, and politics is healthcare. And so if abortion is "progressive," then by golly, abortion has to be in everything, because to a good leftist, politics should permeate everything.
But the United States Council of Catholic Bishops doesn't agree, and that laid bare a second split over healthcare, between the mostly secular view of progressives, and the more faith-based view, which draws its inspiration from Matthew 25:40, in which Jesus says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Secular leftists were happy, of course, to have the Bishops' support on national health insurance--Catholic support for the idea goes back to the 19th century--but when the Bishops peeled away on abortion, as they always do, those same leftists were just as happy to lambaste the Bishops. Thus the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Honorable Lynn Woolsey, threatening the tax-exempt status of the USCCB.
But before leftists go too far down this vengeful road, they should Google Kulturkampf, a word that emerged from an earlier period of state-church relations, in 19th century Germany. If the Catholics could beat back Otto Von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor, they can probably beat back Ms. Woolsey.