In this installment, I will examine some of the deadly effects tobacco has on human health -- including fetuses. In part two, I will focus on some prominent Catholics politicians who have not only opposed reproductive freedom under the rubric of being "prolife," but turned a blind eye  to the addiction and medical ravages of tobacco while accepting campaign contributions from tobacco interests -- and even do their bidding.

But first, let's look at the use of communion as a political weapon.

Most recently, Bishop Thomas Tobin of Rhode Island targeted a member of his state's congressional delegation -- Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) -- who does not agree with the hierarchy on issues such as abortion and stem cell research. For this reason, Tobin has barred Kennedy from the sacrament of Communion.  In a recent interview he said that he targeted Rep. Kennedy because of his prominence as an elected official.  But Tobin's unambiguous intent is to bend the congressman to the will of the Church -- even if it means trampling the consciences and  the civil and constitutional rights of prochoice Catholic and non-Catholic Americans

Bishop Tobin is among those who say that Catholics who support reproductive rights are unCatholic. And abortion rights supporters like Kennedy are often described as being part of a a culture of death.   But reactionaries like Bishop Tobin and  Archbishop Raymond Burke apparently don't count tobacco addiction and the resultant mortality and morbidity rates for fetuses as well as children and adults of all ages, in their highly selective definition of the culture of death.

Tobacco's Deadly Legacy

According to the The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids:

Deaths & Disease in the USA from Tobacco Use:
*    People who die each year from their own cigarette smoking:  approx. 400,000

*    Adult nonsmokers who die each year from exposure to secondhand smoke:  approx. 50,000

*    Kids under 18 alive today who will ultimately die from smoking (unless smoking rates decline):  6,000,000+

*    People in the USA who currently suffer from smoking-caused illness:  8.6 million

The Harm to Fetuses

According to The March of Dimes, both first-hand and second-hand tobacco smoke is hazardous to any fetus:

Statistics from the United States are compelling. According to the U.S. Public Health Service, if all pregnant women in this country stopped smoking, there would be an estimated:
     11 percent reduction in stillbirths
     5 percent reduction in newborn deaths
Cigarette smoke contains more than 2,500 chemicals.  It is not known for certain which of these chemicals are harmful to the developing baby,  but both nicotine and carbon monoxide play a role in causing adverse pregnancy outcomes.

A recent study suggests that women who smoke anytime during the month before pregnancy to the end of the first trimester are more likely to have a baby with birth defects, particularly congenital heart defects. The risk of heart defects appears to increase with the number of cigarettes a woman smokes.

Tobacco Use in the USA:
*    High school students who are current (past month) smokers:  20.0% or 3.5 million [Boys: 21.3% Girls: 18.7%]

*    High school males who currently use smokeless tobacco:  13.4%  [Girls: 2.3%]

*    Kids (under 18) who try smoking for the first time each day: 3,500+

*    Kids (under 18) who become new regular, daily smokers each day:    about 1,000

*    Kids exposed to secondhand smoke at home:  15.5 million

*    Workplaces that have smoke-free policies:  68.6%

*    Packs of cigarettes consumed by kids each year:  800 million (roughly $2.0 billion per year in sales revenue)  

*    Adults in the USA who smoke: 19.8% or more than 43 million  [Men: 22.3% Women: 17.4%]
 

The costs of tobacco use is staggering:

Tobacco-Related Monetary Costs in the USA
Total annual public and private health care expenditures caused by smoking:  $96 billion
- Annual Federal and state government smoking-caused Medicaid payments:  $30.9 billion
[Federal share: $17.6 billion per year.  States' share: $13.3 billion]

• Federal government smoking-caused Medicare expenditures each year: $27.4 billion
  
• Other federal government tobacco-caused health care costs (e.g. through VA health care): $9.6 billion
  

o Annual health care expenditures solely from secondhand smoke exposure: $4.98 billion

And that is just a sample of the costs.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids concludes that "U.S. taxpayers ultimately pay roughly $38 billion dollars each year in federal taxes to treat the many health problems caused by smoking."

While it is possible there are exceptions that prove the rule -- I cannot  think of one elected official has been threatened with loss of the sacraments for taking tobacco money.     .

And as we shall examine in the next part of this inquiry, there are some Catholic politicians who hold themselves up as being "pro-life" because of their opposition to abortion, who nevertheless accept campaign contributions from tobacco interests.