The Dirty Little Secret on Abortion and Healthcare Reform, by David Brody
Let me clue you in to the dirty little secret that nobody in Democratic circles really wants to talk about: There's a very good chance that pro-choice lawmakers will have to decide what's more important; passing healthcare reform legislation or abortion. Pro-life House Democrat Bart Stupak has publicly said his pro-life abortion language must stay in the final bill. He could take roughly 10 pro-life Democrats with him and vote AGAINST the final healthcare bill if his language is changed. That would sink the bill. At that point, pro-choicers would be pretty much forced into swallowing hard and accepting Stupak's language into the final bill so healthcare reform can pass with Stupak's gang of 10 OR they pro-choicers may say forget it. They may tell Pelosi that while they want healthcare reform in the worst way they want to protect women's rights to abortion even more. Seriously, it really could come down to this.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told me the following last month about the Democratic Party:
Newt Gingrich: "I think they have a huge because the people who dominate the Democratic Party today are radical secular left-wingers. If you said to them you could have health care as long as you make it illegal for any tax money to go to abortion I suspect that they would rather not have healthcare."
More below from The New York Times today:
Even as the Senate took a significant step toward passing its version of a sweeping overhaul of the health insurance system before Christmas, Democrats were grappling Monday with deep internal divisions over abortion, the issue that most complicates their drive to merge the Senate and House bills and send final legislation to President Obama.
In the House, advocates and opponents of abortion rights and conservative Democrats have made clear that they object, for different reasons, to the Senate's compromise language on abortion. Interest groups on both sides of the spectrum -- Planned Parenthood on the abortion rights side, Catholic bishops for the anti-abortion rights camp -- also oppose the abortion provision in the Senate bill, leaving Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a challenge in rounding up the votes she needs in the House.
Ms. Pelosi's room for maneuvering is limited because any changes to the language in the Senate bill could unravel the deal that provided Democrats with the 60 votes they need to get the legislation through the Senate.
Ms. Pelosi, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, and the White House will have to find a way forward on abortion even as they confront other big differences between the House and Senate bills, including how to pay to expand insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans and whether to include a government-run plan to compete with private insurers.
(More below)
Sixty-four House Democrats, representing one-fourth of the House Democratic caucus, voted for stringent restrictions on insurance coverage of abortion. And 41 of them voted for passage of the House bill, so they constitute a crucial bloc. The bill was approved, 220 to 215, on Nov. 7.
But leading supporters of abortion rights in the House said they would not vote for a final bill if it included those restrictions, which they fear would curtail access to abortion for many women who already have insurance.
|
Comments |  RSS |
|
| |||||
|
| |||||
