Abortion Coverage Topic Of Health Reform Negotiations; Bishops Threaten Opposition

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 19 Oct 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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As lawmakers continue closed-door negotiations on health care reform legislation, House Democratic leaders are weighing various policy concessions, including stronger restrictions on abortion coverage, according to a leadership aide, CQ Today reports. Some antiabortion-rights Democrats have threatened to oppose the House bill (HR 3200) without additional language restricting federal funding of abortion coverage.

According to CQ Today, House leaders also are considering stronger language prohibiting undocumented workers from obtaining benefits and allowing people who purchase coverage through health insurance exchanges to choose plans from outside their home states. It is unclear what exactly Democratic leaders are considering, as the meetings have been held in private. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said both chambers are likely to finish their negotiations around the same time, which will probably be early November, according to CQ Today.

Senate Democrats also are in private negotiations to combine the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee's bill (S 1679) with the Senate Finance Committee's bill. Although Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said on Thursday he expects the chamber's final bill to receive 60 votes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has declined to make any predictions. However, Reid said on Thursday that he has spoken with two Republicans who he thinks could support the bill, though he would not identify them. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who voted for the Finance Committee's bill on Tuesday, is the only Republican to publicly support a health reform measure to date (Wayne, CQ Today, 10/15).

Bishops Threaten To Pull Support Over Abortion Coverage

Meanwhile, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is threatening to pull its support for health care reform if Congress does not include additional language restricting abortion coverage and more "protections for rights of conscience," Religion News Service/USA Today reports. USCCB supports access to health care as a "basic human right" but has expressed concern that health reform would include federal funding for abortion, despite assurances from President Obama that it will not. In an Oct. 8 letter to members of Congress, the bishops said, "It is essential that the legislation clearly apply ... longstanding and widely supported federal restriction on abortion funding and mandates, and protections for rights of conscience." They wrote, "No current bill meets this test," adding, "If the final legislation does not meet our principles, we will have no choice but to oppose the bill."

Some progressive Catholic groups are supportive of health reform efforts. Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United, said, "People of faith in general, and Catholics in particular, believe that universal health care ranks among our nation's most urgent moral priorities" (Eckstrom, Religion News Service/USA Today, 10/16).

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