>> o'brien: comi up, abortion: a coentious issue in the healthcare debate. and,housands of volunteers joined together to help prode basic serves in a financially- troubled ty. plus, ts young girl is autistic. she cannot speak. but she has fod her voice, writing more than 90 poems. captioning snsored by thlilly endowment >> o'brien: welcome, i'tim o'brien sitng in for bob abernethy. thanks r joining us. step by step, congress is mong forward ohealth care reform, and religis groups are among those mobilizi around the issue. after the senate finance committee approve its healcare plan this week, both the house and sete are now prparing their various bills for full debate. ma questions are yet to be resolved, and faith oups ross the spectrum are lobbyg for theirarticular concerns. one of the most conttious issues within the religus community is thextent to which healthcare reform shou allow any type of federal fundinfor abortion coverage, evenndirect funding. kim lawton repors. >> reporter: aboion opponents ha already launched an aggressive lobbyi campaign. this new ad is from the grou amerans united for life. >> pollinshows over 70% of americans don't want to se their tax dollars going r it, so that's what thisebate is over is not ether or not you agree or disagree with abortn, but whether or not at the federal level wre going to pay for it. >> reporter: meanwhe, an interfaith oup called "the religious institute" ghered signatures of more an a thousand clergy affirming cess to abortion. >> we believe thatbortion should be safe, legal, rarand accessible. and that a healthcarreform should not make it more fficult for women to get abortions in this countrn' >> reporter: in his aress to a joint session of ngress last month, president oba made a clear prise. >> under our plan, no feder dollars will be ed to fund abortions. >>eporter: but working that out legistively has been comicated. theurrent house and senate proposals do not elicitly probit abortion coverage. congressional lears say the lls would comply with the so called hyde amendnt, which resicts most abortion funding in medicaid. abortion opponents say tt's not good enough. >> unless there's an explic exclusn of abortion, abortion ll be in health care refom. >> reporter: yoest and h fellow tivists also object to proposed compromis that would require insurance ans offering abortiocoverage to keep public and pvate funds separate and usenly the private funds to y for abortions. >> a lotf the solutions that we see involve lot of really fancy accounting giicks, and at's exactly what it is, i is just moving money around from pot tpot in order to try to promoe this fiction that somehowe're not paying for it, just because theoney is being fneled through a particular channel. reporter: but pro-choice activists say given the lel right abortion, that compromise ishe very least congress os women. >> there may be a lot of medal services that i might dagree with-- that i woun't want a membeof my family to have. but that's not up to . if we care about the very difficult siations that women and families fi themselves in, then out ofhat compassion, we would me sure that women would have accesso all options. >> reporter: faith-based moderates and lerals have been actively pushinfor healthca reform as a moral issue. many are worried that artion debates will deraitheir eorts. >> we think that in so sense is a distraction. i mean, it's aimportant issue, a very important issue. but the context of a country where a owing number-- miions and millions of people don't ve insurance-- health surance we feel that's more he main issue for this particular debate. >> reporter: thessue h already become a rallyingoint for religiousonservatives. >> the amican people will not stand for governmt-run insurance that uses taayer moneyo fund abortions in this country. >> i really disappointed that once again-women's lives-- the desperate situation that soany women find tmselves in, the despate situation that so many poor women face, is beinused as aolitical football. i think it's morly unconscionable th we are segregating some health services. abortion's a health rvice. >> reporter: but abortio opponts say that's precisely theiew they're fighting agait. >> it's really troublingo us th we face a future where we mighnot be able to make a fundamental dference between abtion and a tonsillectomy. for mllions of americans across thisountry, abortion is a morally objectioble activity, anso for us to lose the ability to differentiate wita tonsillectomy would be aeal eal tragedy. >> report: activists on both sides of thebortion issue are bilizing for some key battle in the next few weeks. th the house and the senate are expected tbegin floor debates on healtare reform by the endf the month. and e obama administration hopes a final bill wilbe passed by the end the year. i'mim lawton in washington. >> o'brien: ith groups are also divided oanother issue in the news this week: gayights. religious leaders were among both suppters and opponents of a mass rch for gay rights in washington, and of a speech presidentbama gave to the human rights campai. the president pledged to end the military's controveral policy known as "don't ask n't tell" and allow gayto join the services without reriction. in other ne, the reverend sun myg moon, is handing over day- to-day operations ofhe unification churche founded to s daughter and three sons. the church claims more han 100,000 members and aetwork of sinesses worldwide. it may be best knowfor the ms weddings moon has erformed. he oversaw one of the laest this past week south korea. 10,000 couples-- most ofhem chosen for each other by the church took vows or renewed them. 10,000 me couples participated remote from other countries. at the vacan, african bishops spoke out aainst what they called the "cultural imperiism" of many western aid programs. the bishops are in rom for a special eting to address the role of the cathol church in africa. one ofhe most closely-watched discussions haseen about the chuh's ban on condoms, which is at odds with hanitarian groups that suort condoms to stop the spre of aids. the bishops id promoting condom use was an ample of the west trying to impose its ews n africa. in iraq, the government releed its first offial tally of civilianar deaths. it said more than ,000 iraqi civilianwere killed between 2004 and 2008. and almost 150,00were wounded. the numb includes 15,000 unidtified bodies that were neverlaimed by families and are buried in special cemeteries. inindonesia, officials have given up the search for the missing after the earthquke that devastated that coury last mth. the death to stands at more than,100. manitarian groups and faith based organizaons are working to meet the demands f a region that remains in deerate need. thousands he been left homeless with only minal support fr the government. officials said the homess are eligible for cents a day for up a month. in this coutry, president obama made his first visit to new orleansince becoming president. inonnection with the visit, a alition of some of the tion's most influential rigious leaders asked him to prioritizrecovery for the region. a letter signed by the leaders of the natiol council of churches, thislamic society of nth america, the episcopal chur and the jewish council for public affairs ang others, the coalition urged more federa tention to long-term recove th addresses poverty, coastal erosi and climate change. most of us ve seen, if not personally experienced, the devastating effectof the cent economic downturn. but as bad as it has beefor some, for others, it has proved unusual opportunities to help ou to do good. some 26,000 vonteers in portnd, oregon are pooling their talentin just such an efort. it's called "season of servi." o reporter is lucky severson. >> rorter: volunteers signed upy the thousands to lend a helping hand to ople in need. d here in portland, oregon where unemploymenreached 12% this year, there are a lot people ineed. and withax revenues down, the city needs help providg basic services, li maintaining public schools, particularly in loincome neighborhoods. roosevelt high, r instance, mig get a visit from a maintenance m once this year if it's lucky. devon baker is an administrar at roosevelt. it does something for you,in yor heart. you know, if you're o of the staff members and suddenly t building is clean, 's ready to go it's... it a real partnership with lot of folks that just really makes yofeel like, wow, people really docare. >> reporter: what mak this effort so extraordinary is n that it's church members ing the volunteering-- there a about 500 church involved this year including cathic and mainline protesant-- but the majority of t 26,000e volunteers a evangelicals, intentionally not here to proselyte, but to show their faith by doing good eds such as scrubbing windowand even working in harmony with onof the most liberal cities the s. and its openly gay mayor m adams. >> if i uld have them do it everymonth in my city, i would. so thk you. >> reporr: the organizer of season of svice, which is now in its sond year is kevi palau. >> poland is a very proudly libel city. this is not the bible be and so to ha that kind of cooperation beten churches and city aders on a long-term basis, i thi, is unrecedented. >> reporter: palais the son of luis palau who has staged ge evaelism festivals around the world. his s chose a slightly different ph-- one he thinks wil put christ's teachings int actn, and, perhaps, change the ige in a secular city that some have of christis. the purpose, he says, inot to preach orroselytize. >> we're not doing thiso that we can preach theospel. we're doing ts to demonstrate theove of christ and absutely, we're not hiding the fact that we want peopleo come nto relationship with chris but reastically through this, it's gonna hpen more relationally, and organicay and that's okay. >> reporter: waynebbott graduated from osevelt. >> season oservice works becae... because jesus told us th he was here to serve and not be serd. anthere's absolutely no reason whwe can't just take a few inutes out of our busy day.. our bu lives every once in a while a do exactly what he did. >> report: the extensive work done sprucing up roosevelt high, outside and inwould have cost the city about $200,000. deborah peterson is the principal. >> whenood people of good will comeogether and honor one nother and believe in hope, miracs happen and that is what happening today. >> porter: the churches also raised $10000 to help the increasi numbers of homeless. then they sponsored wt they cl compassion clinics roughout the city offering free medical and denl care. ese clinics were overbook within thfirst half hour with stly uninsured patients. these clinics care f as many as 200 hundred patients ch day. grateful patients. the churches even spsored the mobile medical truck. >> fothe church, love has to be a veb, and this is what it looks like. >this is love in action. th is what christ did for all of ose 5,000. he d them. he preached to them, hehared with themnd he loved them. >> repter: love includes free veterinarianare for their pets, and haircu for their owners. vin palau says loving thy neighbor is what seas of rvice is all about. >> so our pe is that long term this does leato a lifestyle of service d sharing the gospel by how weive. >> reporr: mayor adams said the ousands of volunteers had ma portland and its suburbs a better place. >> honestly, we had dest hopes. well, our modest hos were reatly exceeded. >> reporter:eason of service watopped off with a carnival that may have beeas important as any of the her events-- an opportunity for families simply have fun in hard tes anexperience what neighborly love can do en it's puinto practice. for "religion and hics newsweekly," i'm luckyeverson reporting. >> o'ben: two new government studies indicate auti is far more common than previous thght-- that one in a hundred kids in the u.-- about 673,000 children-- suffer frothis complex, and often devastati neurological disorder. greater awarens, broader definitions andpotting autism in younger children may elain some of the increase. but federalealth officials say autism is becominmore prevalent, and th cannot explain why. for famils and society, autism presents an array medical and ethical dilemmas. dependent producer charlie ry and correspondent bob faw reportn one family's battle against autism-- a st of faith and hop >> reporter: somemes for an austic child like elizabeth-- cheered on here by her fath. >> rn, turn, turn. you can dit, you can do it, you cano it. good, good. >> porter: sometimes there are small victorie.. >> excellent, exllent. >> porter: ...and the demons of autism loosen the grip. too often, though,or elizabeth there a other moments of seemingly impeneable darkness and frustration. unable to eak, elizath comnicates now by finding letters on a letter boaror typingnto a keyboard. even tha says her mother ginniedoes not spare elizabeth moments of agony. >> i remember so diinctly one of the first thgs she typed t: a-g-o-n-y, agony. this was a lite six-year-old child, and she knew wht agony s, and then she wrote, "i nd talk"-- that that was her gony. >> reporter: she wast always like ts. in her first 15 months, elizabeth was healthy, tive, alert, evn verbal. then she changed drastical. besides the complete loss lauage within a week, she did start to have repetive behavior and have frustratns and tantrums and rely kind of left s. >> reporr: researchers suspect genetic d environmental factors cause autism. it is chacterized by unconvential facial pressions, limited motornd social skills,nd difficulty communicating-- life largely dependent. for elizabh's parents, that diagnosis was devastatng enough, but th were also told there is no riable treatment, guaranteed cure, and ten years later not that much h anged, says dr. anthony rostain, anxpert on autism at cldren's hospital of philadelphia. >> it really affec almost every aspectf how the child thinks, act feels, and develops both cnitively and emotiolly. so, as a resul it's hard to co up with one-size-fits-all kinof treatment. >> report: elizabeth's parents, ginnie an ray, both enjoyed lucrative wall stret careers but gave them up to ocus on their three children andhe battle against autism. early on, havorial therapy exercises ke this, they were told, might help elizeth to organize the chaoin her mind, help her to learhow to learn. > show me jumping. turn arnd. good job. can you sh me sitting? nice job. >> reportersince she was three ars old, her school district hasaid a full-time professional aide to hp ezabeth academically. this is what a rescted speech erapist believedight help loosen elizath's tongue. it turned t to be more fun than eective. there have also beeyears of special diets and vamin supplements and homeopatic drops cosng hundreds of dollars every month, $20,000 hyperbaric amber, which pumps extra oxygen into herrain for an ur every day, even unproven herapies like these prism lenses which disto elizabeth's vision ihopes of reordering the way her brn processes inrmation. >> reporter: are you coinced that this has benefi? >> i believe thathis has helped other children. >> rerter: and several times elizabeth's mother s taken her cross-country, sking healing in prayer serves. >> we've us educational interventions, mical interntions. why not spiritual intervenons? >> reporter: parents autistic hildren face a terrible dilma. they are fced literally to xperiment on their own childn becau the medical community has not tested and prov those treatmentthe way it has with treatmts for physical conditions like heart dease or caer. >> we are in very, very, vy early stas of understanding how medicions might improve functioning. >> reporter: you dot fault a parent for trying evything conceivable? >> i don't, because i had a child who wasn't respondinto treatmts that were prescribed by the doctor, might very well take tt child to someone else and someone else and somne el. >> reporter: what h happened to elizabethas happened with countlessther autistic children-- so many intervtions with success oy hit or ms. ethicist arthur caplan. >> i could take you onne and find tons of quacks,ip-off artist selling quote, unquote "treatments" to parents of kds with autism. it is a huge problem. >> reporter: it is alson ethical nefield: does society have theesponsibility and can it afford help autistic children who lack the resoces lavish on elizabeth? if so, should thatask fall, as it mostly now do, on local pubc schools? >> you can'do it that way. obviously, dierent school distric have different amounts of mon. we need a national pocy to divvy up resourceso autistic kids, not the school board budget. that mas no sense at all. >>eporter: one intervention whichas worked well for elizabeth began five years go in austi texas with language therist soma mukhopadhyay, who ught elizabeth to use the letter board. then, a stunning turn in elizabeth's life: athe urging of her peonal education aide, terry bi, elizabeth began writing powerful, oten deeply personaloetry, turning some of her frustration into inspiration. and for the first time,those around elibeth discovered her ner voice. for example: "it's not sy, you see, it's very hd being me. there is so much going on iny mind all of the time." >> reporte why do you write poems? >> f-e-e-l-i-n-g-s. >> reporter: your feelings-- that's why you write poem lizabeth is, says her mothe "a very spirual child," and me of her poems are religios. >> "it doesot matter who you are it does not matterf you stray far god is alwaythere for you" >> report: elizabeth has written 90 ems thus far. many reveal her arning to be hear >> "ionly they could walk in my shoes they wou share my news i am in here and rying to speak everday in some kind of way." >> repoer: sentiments echoed in this ahem written for hildren with autism. >> ♪ oh, n't you know i'm trying to nd a way to show you who i am. ♪ >> reporter: because shcan communicate-- elizabet accompanied by tri-- also attends a mainstreamublic schl where she excels especially in math. >> find the greatest commo factor of 18 an24? good girl. >> reporter: her achers marvel at he perrmance and persistence. >> she's taught mabout patienc and i just... i can't ven begin to explain that i' probably learned moreor her than anybodyn life so far. >> reporter: elizabeth isarmly reived by other students. besidesriting, elizabeth can read witremarkable speed, and terri tests her corehension. doing this job with elizabth is the most rewardg thing i've ever done in my fe. >> reporter: elizabeth'success and hefailures-- this two- steps-forward, onetep back-- have be physically exhausting and emotionlly draining for her and her family. it has also sevely tested her moth's faith. >> it's a natural thing cry out, "where areou, god?" i mean,'m calling here in the darkness, and i can't take too much more metimes. >> reporter:and though she on occasn has wavered, her beliefs have emerged stnger. has it reinforcedou faith? >> absolutely, there are mes i know th we are being blessed on the rig path here, and i'll pray about it, and wll move forward. >> rorter: whether elizabeth will evntually speak is, at best, a longhot. she may, her motheroncedes, always need assistance,hich is why in th household success is measured one day, e small victory, at time. >> want to be able to say i have done everything to makey little girl talk. i mean, how can i hear r say, "i'm in agonyecause i can't spak" and not try something? the ta may say only one percent, but if tat one percent is elizabeth, tt's all i need, and she wants us to keep trng. >> reporter: for "ligion and ethics newsweekly this is bob faw in nohern new jersey. >> o'brie on our calendar, tuesday memrs of the baha'i faith honothe birth of their first spiritual leader. baha'is call him the "b," or "ge to god." the bab was born in 18, in what is now iran and this weekend, hindu jains, andikhs begin observing one of their most important anpopular holidays, diwal the five-day festil of lights celebrates the victy of light ovedarkness, or good over evil. it also mas the new year for many hindus and jai. thisas the first year diwali was observed by a tting u.s. prident. onednesday, president obama it a ceremonial lamp in the east room before an audice of religious leads. that's our progm for now. i'm tim o'brien. there's much more on our website, including more resources autism and a link to e breen family's website. audio and video poasts are also available. join at pbs.org. we leave you, the united voices choir of the first baptt church of glenarden, maryland nging "how majestic is your name." captioningponsored by e lilly endowment ♪ captioned by media access group at bh access.wg.org