Religious groups are voicing concerns about health care reform, causing U.S. legislators to balance faith-based views with public policy.

The night before the November health care vote, Catholic bishops were in the Capitol suite of House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., negotiating for hours with top officials about abortion, according to The Associated Press.

"This tends to be policy, this tends to be an exercise in compromise," said U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., on the process of listening to all opinions, regardless of religion, when forming legislation.

Visclosky said he had not been directly contacted by any organized religious group but had been contacted by individuals leading up to the House of Representatives' vote on health care reform.

Meanwhile, Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., has been receiving calls, letters and attending meetings with religious groups regarding health care reform, said Brian Weiss, Bayh's spokesman.

With the Catholic Church getting political recognition, other religions with fewer members, like The Church of Christ, Scientist, would like to get the same attention as legislators face an end-of-the-year deadline on health care reform.

"The concern I have is that the noise level is so high right now in Washington, D.C., it's very hard to sit down and calmly explain what is going on," said Phil Davis, The Church of Christ, Scientist's manager of media and legislative affairs.

Being heard

The Church of Christ has about 1,150 small churches in the United States. Christian Scientists have met in person with legislators to try and ensure private insurance coverage of spiritual care. The church is based on the belief that God is all-encompassing, and members often seek medical care through prayer instead of doctors.

"This is not an advancement or an establishment of religion, it is an accommodation of a secular purpose, which is effective health care," said Davis, citing about 30 percent of spiritual healing requests do not come from Christian Scientists. "This country has a long tradition of accommodating religious practices and especially religious practices for secular purposes."

The church's amendment was originally included in the House's committees on Education and Labor as well as Energy and Commerce, he said.

"Early on we made very good progress," Davis said. "What we discovered the last few hours before the vote on the House, was our amendment was taken out."

Christian Scientists are now focusing on the Senate's version of health care reform.

Meanwhile, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter to Congress in July stating, health care reform should not force anyone to directly or indirectly fund abortions through the government's health care plan.

"It also would be politically unwise," the letter said. "No health care legislation that compels Americans to pay for or participate in abortion will find sufficient votes to pass."

Kathy Saile, director of USCCB domestic social development, would not confirm or deny a bishops' meeting in Pelosi's office.

"We met with anyone on the Hill who would talk with us on our concerns and continue to be committed to meeting with anyone who will meet with us and talk with us about our concerns on health care," Saile said. "We're working to help pass health care (reform) that's affirming the life and dignity of all people."

The USCCB's Web site also offers anti-abortion fliers churches can print and insert in Sunday bulletins.

The Rev. Theodore J. Mens, pastor of St. Mary's Parish in Griffith, said the local church has used the USCCB's fliers to reach parishioners, and also have been writing letters to local representatives, including Visclosky, Bayh and Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind.

"I think that as religious people, we have as much of a right as an obligation to make our views known to our representatives," said Mens, who is also the director of anti-abortion activities for the Diocese of Gary.

In the end, the bishop-supported Stupak amendment prohibiting federal funding for any portion of an insurance plan that could provide abortion services was approved. It is now in the final House bill that was passed.

"I think what happened was the members of Congress listened to their constituents," Saile said. "We know 100,000-plus Catholics contacted their members of Congress, as did other people who thought that the federal government shouldn't be part of funding for abortions."

Saile said she did not think anyone, religious or nonreligious, should be kept out of the health care debate.

Debating religion's role in government

Some groups are lobbying against the Catholic bishops' attempts to shape health care reform.

"I would like to see the Stupak amendment go away," said Betty Cockrum, Indiana president of Planned Parenthood. "I think that there's a reason that from day one there's been a separation of church and state."

Cockrum said the government should avoid religious discrimination by not allowing one religion's views to overpower another's.

And not all people of faith have anti-abortion sentiments, said Kaye McSpadden, president of the Indiana Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights. She said language like that in the Stupak amendment does not help create an inclusive health care system.

"It unfortunately is an unfair attempt to impose one specific religious belief upon everyone," she said.

Others disagree.

Mens said the Catholic Church does not want to exclude anyone, but it does want to be proactive in expressing its views.

"Certainly all of us as citizens have the same right to make our points of view known and to work together for a just society," he said.

Cy Huerter, president of Lake County Right to Life, said it is important for religious leaders to advocate.

"You wouldn't have had an American Revolution without the old ministers out there," Huerter said. "They'd put on their ministry robes on Sunday and take off the robes and grab guns on Monday."