Hoyer: Final health bill may include stronger abortion provisions

The final version of the House health bill may include sections strengthening a ban on federal funding for abortion, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Friday.

Hoyer, the second-ranking House Democrat, said he cannot exactly predict will be in the "manager's amendment," a package of agreements preceding the floor debate of some legislation.

"We're working on the manager's amendment, so I can't predict what exactly we'll see in it," Hoyer said during an interview on Fox News. "There may well be other substantive issues that will be dealt with, but we don't know what they are at this time."

Hoyer maintained that no federal funds would subsidize termination of pregnancies under health reform, and said that while he believes the current provisions of the bill are sufficient, the manager's amendment could strengthen the language to win support of pro-life Democrats, who have expressed concern over the legislation.

"We're going to make that very clear," Hoyer explained. "We think that's clear in the law very now, but we want to make it very clear."

The majority leader asserted that the final bill would have enough votes to pass, citing an unprecedented amount of vetting and review of the bill.