With some pro-lifers trying to make the health care debate an argument over abortion, it was interesting to see the National Catholic Reporter, which knows a thing or two about anti-abortion views, come out in favor of the Obama health care plan.

The Reporter editorialized Thursday in support of the health care bill, which has come under scrutiny for including some abortion funding. It is set for a full vote Sunday.

“Congress, and its Catholics, should say yes to health care reform,” the editorial stated. “We do not reach this conclusion as easily as one might think, given the fact that we have supported universal health care for decades, as have the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Health Association and other official and non-official organs of the Catholic church. There are, to be sure, grave problems with the bill the House will consider in the next few days. It maintains the squirrelly system of employer-based health care coverage that impedes cost reduction. Its treatment of undocumented workers is shameful. It is unnecessarily complicated, even Byzantine, in some of its provisions. It falls short of providing true universal coverage.”

But the editorial adds: “the choice Congress faces is between the status quo and change -- and the current bill is a profoundly preferable step in the direction of positive change. The legislation will lower costs, not only for individuals and small businesses currently burdened by rising premiums, but for the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which threaten to strangle the federal budget. It will extend health care coverage to 30 million Americans who currently lack it. Finally, a society that covers most of its citizens will be a society more likely to eventually cover everyone -- our immigrant brothers and sisters included.”