Pagliuca wields Stupak Amendment; Pelosi backs Capuano

The Stupak Amendment is officially a campaign issue.

Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca is going after Martha Coakley and Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) with radio ads hitting them for opposing a healthcare bill that would include the abortion funding restrictions.

Capuano initially used the issue to criticize Coakley, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in the race for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. But he soon switched his position.

From the Boston Globe:

Pagliuca, without specifically naming the two, accuses them of jeopardizing the passage of the hotly contested health care bill that is making its way through Congress.

By a razor-thin margin, the House last weekend passed its version, which included a controversial amendment that would prohibit federally subsidized insurance plans from paying for abortions in most cases.

“Two of my opponents for the US Senate are putting this landmark legislation at risk,’’ Pagliuca says in the 60-second ad. “The next senator from Massachusetts represents a vital 60th vote to provide health care to over 30 million Americans who don’t have it, and to help lower spiraling health care costs.’’

Pagliuca says he would not “turn my back’’ on the uninsured families and individuals who he says “face bankruptcy, illness, and even death because they lack adequate health care coverage.’’

Coakley leads Pagliuca 44-17 in a Suffolk University poll released today, while Capuano is at 16 percent.

UPDATE: Despite his threat to oppose the healthcare bill, Capuano's campaign just announced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will be endorsing him.

And, interestingly, Pelosi praises his "courage" on the healthcare bill.

“Mike Capuano not only cast a courageous vote for this historic legislation, but was a constructive force in improving this bill and moving it to the Senate," Pelosi said in a statement.