DeGette warns leaders: Don't mess with Pro-Choice Caucus

The leader of abortion rights supporters in the House warned leaders not to mess with her caucus when it comes to the Stupak amendment.

Rep. Diania DeGette (D-Colo.) warned that the 40 members of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus should be taken seriously in their threat to vote against a health reform bill containing language from Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) restricting federal funding for abortion.

"So what I would say is I don't think people should mess with this one," she said in an interview with the liberal blog Open Left.

Nearly all House Democratic leaders have backed removing the Stupak amendment during conference with Senate health legislation, though if the Senate were to include similar language in its bill, it could make removing such language more difficult during the conference process.

DeGette said that abortion rights supporters in the House are furious at the amendment, and said they take their threat even more seriously than House liberals' threat to vote against a bill without a robust public option -- a threat which was eventually broken.

"I guess I would say we're really furious here," DeGette said. "I didn't sign any of these other letters, even though I supported the robust public option, and I would have voted for single payer Amendment, and all of that. That's not fundamental to me like this is."