As the Senate health reform bill heads for a vote in the House later this week, key religious leaders are stepping forward to say the Senate bill's abortion restrictions are sufficient, thereby challenging the demand by Rep. Bart Stupak for additional anti-choice language.

Sister Carol Keehan, chief executive of the Catholic Health Association, said in an interview with the Associated Press that she believes the Senate's bill's approach would work just as well as Stupak's preferred approach to keep federal dollars from being used to pay for abortion.

"On the moral issue of abortion, there is no disagreement," Sister Keehan said. "On the technical issue of whether this bill prevents federal funding of abortions, we differ with Right to Life."

The statement by Sister Keehan, who heads an organization of more than 600 Catholic hospitals, nursing homes and health systems across the nation, strikes a sharp contrast with the demands by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and National Right to Life organization for inclusion of Stupak's language in health reform. The Catholic health providers stand to gain from successful health reform, since the uninsured patients they now serve would be eligible for health insurance through the measure.

According to the Associated Press, Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life, dismisses the segregation of funds called for in the Senate bill as a bookkeeping trick. His group has served notice it will count any vote for the House bill as support for taxpayer-funded abortion. The bishops reiterated their opposition in a letter to Congress on Friday.

"No Catholic hospital executive has ever turned out hundreds of volunteers to man the phone banks or walk the precincts for an endangered congressman or his challenger," Johnson said in response to the hospital group's announcement.

But Sister Keehan told the Associated Press she'll have to agree to disagree.

"We are trying to respect other people's conscience and views," she said. "But we also weigh in with our conscience and views. We think this bill is a good first step to health care reform."

Sister Keehan wrote a personal statement about the urgent need for health reform in the latest issue of the newspaper Catholic Health World. In it, she reflected on her visit to the White House March 3 to hear President Obama talk about health reform:

"As I watched our president present his plan to pass the health reform legislation, it was clear this is an historic opportunity to make great improvements in the lives of so many Americans. Is it perfect? No. Does it cover everyone? No. But is it a major first step? Yes.

The insurance reforms will make the lives of millions more secure, and their coverage more affordable. The reforms will eventually make affordable health insurance available to 31 million of the 47 million Americans currently without coverage."

Meanwhile, 25 evangelical Christian, Catholic and Baptist leaders sent a letter to Congress March 11. In it, they said disputes over abortion should not be allowed to derail health reform. 

According to the Associated Baptist Press, the religious readers said they believe the Senate bill not only maintains long-standing restrictions on federal funding of abortion, but also provides new support for vulnerable pregnant women that could actually reduce the number of abortions.

"As Christians committed to a consistent ethic of life and deeply concerned with the health and well-being of all people, we want to see health-care reform enacted," the leaders said.

Citing a "lack of clear and accurate information" about the bill, the leaders laid out a page-by-page listing of provisions related to abortion and supports for pregnant women in HR 3590. 

"We are now at a critical moment in the history of our country," the letter concluded. "More than 30 million Americans may finally gain access to a health care system that is affordable -- providing families, children and seniors with fundamental care that is essential to human dignity. We respectfully ask that you make an informed decision about this legislation based on careful deliberation guided by facts."

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