Congressional Democrats now must choose whether to exclude taxpayer funding of abortion in their healthcare legislation or risk defeat of the entire bill.
Under all existing federal health programs, taxpayer funds are not used for abortions and they do not subsidize private health insurance that pays for abortion either. However, the healthcare bill Democrats are poised to pass in the Senate authorizes federal subsidies for tens of millions of Americans to buy private health insurance that will cover abortion on demand.
Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life, believes it is unlikely the bill that emerges from conference committee will include the House-approved Stupak amendment, which bars federal funding of abortion on demand in public and private health insurance plans. The Stupak amendment, he says, faces a "perilous" future.
"The conference committee will be directly controlled by top Democratic leaders from the House and Senate, almost all of whom are dead set against us -- and they will be working in close concert with President Obama and the White House, who have fought us every step of the way," Johnson explains.
"On the other hand, and this is the most important thing, they need to get a majority in the House and 60 votes in the Senate to pass the final bill. So if we can show that there are enough lawmakers, particularly in the House of Representatives, who will not vote for the final bill unless it contains the Stupak amendment, then they're going to have to make a hard choice."
The pro-life spokesman warns that Democratic leaders and the White House will be trying to "wear down" pro-life Democrats in the House and offer them different inducements so they will "get out of the way" and allow the bill to pass with abortion funding included.
Contact: Jim Brown
Source: OneNewsNow
Publish Date: December 22, 2009
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