Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid released the Senate’s version of a health care reform bill last night, and it appears to essentially adopt a Capps rather than a Stupak approach to the abortion funding issue. That is, according to Ryan Grim at the Huffington Post, the bill “would require at least one plan within the health insurance exchange that the bill sets up to offer a plan that covers abortion and one that doesn’t. It would also authorize the Health and Human Services Secretary to audit plans to make certain that abortion isn’t being paid for with federal dollars.”
Grim reports that Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA), who authored the abortion compromise in the House reviled by the religious right and its ally Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), is satisfied with the language, as is Barbara Boxer (D-CA), a leading pro-choice senator.
So the question is whether anti-choice Democrats in the Senate will seek a Stupak-like amendment there, and to what extent they will be cheered on by religious right advocacy groups. The National Right to Life Committee was first out of the box last night, issuing a statement calling the abortion provisions in Reid’s bill “completely unacceptable.” The Stop the Abortion Mandate coalition (of which Democrats for Life of America is a part) is calling on supporters to urge their senators to vote “no” on cloture in order to prevent the bill from reaching the Senate floor. (Reid could still move parts of the bill through a process of reconciliation.) Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest has disenguously called the Reid bill the “opposite” of Stupak in that it provides for “an unprecedented expansion of federally-funded abortion.”
All eyes are on anti-choice Democrats Ben Nelson (NE) and Bob Casey (PA) to discern the next move. Early this morning, the Catholic News Agency reported:
There are conflicting reports about whether these pro-life Democrats would support Stupak Amendment restrictions in the Senate bill. CNN has reported that Sen. Nelson would be satisfied with the less restrictive provisions of the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill.
Sen. Casey also issued a statement which some reports construed as a retreat from the Stupak Amendment. However, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette politics blog “Early Returns” on Monday published a statement from Casey spokesman Larry Smar which read:
“The suggestion that Senator Casey thinks that there is no room for a Senate amendment like the Stupak Amendment that passed the House is incorrect and does not reflect his position or the statement I issued that explained his support for health care reform and his support for measures to keep the bill neutral on abortion.”
The spokesman added that Sen. Casey had voted for an amendment “very similar” to the Stupak Amendment.
“His position has not changed since that vote.”
Clearly there are a lot of moving parts here, with different groups and constituencies jockeying for position. I’ll continue to report as the situation plays out.
