Pro-choice Caucus leader expects meeting with Obama

The co-chairwoman of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus said Monday she expects a meeting with President Barack Obama next week to discuss abortion-related provisions in the House health bill.

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) vowed that she and at least 40 other Democrats supporting abortion rights would vote against any final health bill containing the amendment on abortion rights offered by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), and said she would take her case against the provision to the White House.

"I would expect that we would go over to the White House next week -- and we're going to tell the president the same thing we're telling the speaker," she said during an apperance on MSNBC.

"Frankly, the women of America should be furious because this just does not say no federal funding for abortion, this says women cannot use their own money to buy an insurance policy that would include a legal medical procedure," DeGette said during an appearance on MSNBC. 

DeGette has circulated a letter amongst colleagues to gather support for removing the Stupak amendment.

"A large group of us are saying that if this language is contained in the conference report, then we will not vote for the conference report," she added. "So it needs to be stripped out in the conference."

The Colorado congresswoman, who is a co-chairwoman of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sympathized with the abortion rights supporters, but decided to move forward in the interests of the overall bill.

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