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...made possible by an eleventh hour amendment proposed by Democratic Representative Bart Stupak of Michigan that forbids health insurance companies from covering abortions for any individual whose insurance is subsidized by taxpayer dollars. We lament that such a reactionary amendment was required for the passage of this landmark bill, but we also recognize its political necessity...
...Stupak Amendment is to survive into the final version of the health care bill—after the separate House and Senate bills are reconciled in conference—it would decrease the number of insurers providing coverage of abortions for women, since virtually all insurers would have an incentive to partake in the insurance exchange for individuals eligible for federal subsidies that the bill establishes. All insurance policies bought via this exchange would be prohibited from covering abortions in order to uphold the principle of the 1976 Hyde Amendment forbidding the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions...
...most conservative Democrat in the Senate and one of the primary “swing votes” whose whims shall dictate the fate of health insurance reform, said that “you could be sure I would vote against it” if the Senate bill does not contain language as strong as Stupak’s on the issue of publicly funded abortions...
Democrats Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, likewise, have also called for anti-abortion measures in the Senate bill, while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who is pro-life, has yet to come out in favor or against such an amendment. On the other hand, if the bill is moved too far to the right, it could begin losing support on the left. NARAL Pro-Choice America President Nancy Keenan, for example, has said that she “is not going to stand for a bill that has this kind of language...
Even in the House, the amendment garnered only an additional six to ten votes, hardly proportional to their cost. Nonetheless, without those six to ten votes, the bill would not have passed, and, as President Obama put it, “this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill,” and in that vein, it must be recognized that reforming America’s health care delivery system is worth whatever reversible price must be paid to enact the required legislation...