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Stupak: House abortion-rights foes may oppose Senate healthcare bill
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12/22/09 03:49 PM ET
House Democrats who oppose abortion rights "will find it very difficult" to support the Senate's healthcare bill, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) warned Tuesday.
Stupak, the author of an amendment to the House healthcare bill that would forbid federal subsidies from supporting insurance plans that cover abortion, said that he and the 63 other Democrats who supported that amendment were skeptical of the Senate's language on abortion.
"They know that the 64 Democrats who voted with the Republicans on my amendment, we feel strongly that we cannot support a healthcare bill which goes past the current restrictions, which is no federal funding for abortion," Stupak said on Fox News, referrring to Democratic leaders in the House.
"So, if they go further than that, a lot of us will find it very difficult to vote for the Senate bill," he said. "Not just because of the abortion language, but even other language in the Senate bill those of us in the House are not pleased to see."
Both supporters and opponents of abortion rights have decried the Senate's compromise language on abortion, which was included to win the pivotal 60th vote from Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). The Senate bill would seek to segregate federal support off from health plans covering abortion by requiring people to write an additional check to pay for abortion coverage themselves.
Stupak said Tuesday that he'd always been able to work out a deal with Democratic leaders in the past, echoing his words on Saturday that he hoped to reach an amenable solution on abortion.
However, a failed deal could imperil the health bill's chances in the House, especially as leaders of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus are mulling how to come down on the Senate language.
The House healthcare bill, which included the Stupak amendment, passed the House on Nov. 7 in a 220-215 vote.
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