Stupak reserving judgment on health bill's abortion language

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) stressed that he's withholding judgment on the healthcare bill until he sees its final language.

Stupak, the author of an amendment to the initial House legislation that restricted federal support for insurance plans covering abortion services, said he's adopted a wait-and-see approach.

"This is the type of language we need to see," he said after President Barack Obama's address to House Democrats at the conclusion of their retreat. " We're waiting to see the base bill."

Stupak has threatened to oppose the final health bill unless it goes to sufficient lengths to bar federal support for abortion. He's said that he and a handful of other centrist Democrats would vote against the bill if it even used language like what was included in the Senate's bill, at the urging of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). 

Both House and Senate leaders have to walk a delicate tightrope in negotiating the bill's final language in the bill, having to balance courting the votes of Democrats who oppose abortion rights, while mollifying abortion rights supporters in both houses.

Stupak did praise Obama's remarks to lawmakers this evening, though, part of which were publicly available, followed by a closed-door question-and-answer section.

"I thought he did a great job of answering questions," he said.

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