Reid Calls For Senate Health Reform Vote This Year As Lawmakers Mull Strategy On Antiabortion Restrictions

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 12 Nov 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday said he plans to bring the Senate's version of health care reform legislation to the floor next week with a goal of finishing work on the bill by Christmas, the New York Times reports. The final version of the bill has not been released, as Reid is still waiting for cost analyses from the Congressional Budget Office. On Tuesday evening, Reid made the first procedural step toward Senate debate when he placed the House's version of the bill (HR 3962) on the Senate calendar, the Times reports.

According to Senate aides, Reid hopes to vote on the motion to proceed before the Senate leaves for the Thanksgiving recess. However, approval for such a motion would require the support of all 60 members of the Democratic caucus -- 58 Democrats and two independents. There is still significant disagreement over several issues, including the proposed public plan option and abortion coverage, the Times reports.

In a luncheon address to Senate Democrats, former President Clinton urged lawmakers to pass a health reform bill quickly, the Times reports (Herszenhorn et al., New York Times, 11/11). Clinton did not mention the issue of abortion coverage or other specific provisions of the bill. Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) said Clinton "was not at all addressing the abortion issue, but I think he was addressing that whether you are a progressive or a conservative within our caucus, there may be things that you're not going to like" and that "it's more important to get the job done."

Reid said the Senate Finance Committee's health reform bill (S 1796) addresses the issue "in a responsible way," but he would not rule out the possibility of strengthening that language in the bill he is preparing for the floor. Reid said, "We're going to continue to work with pro-choice folks and pro-life folks in the Senate and come up with something that's fair and reasonable." The Finance Committee bill would require health insurance exchanges to include at least one plan that offers abortion coverage and one that does not.

In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was able to bring the chamber's bill to a vote only after allowing a vote on an amendment barring public and private health insurers from covering abortion if they accept people who receive government subsidies. The amendment, introduced by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), passed 240-194, with 64 Democrats voting alongside 176 Republicans (Hunter, CQ Today, 11/10).

Stupak's amendment has been the subject of much debate over the past few days, with many abortion-rights supporters saying it goes too far in restricting access to abortion services. In a letter to the editor of the Washington Post on Wednesday, Stupak and Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) -- the co-sponsors of the amendment -- said it "only ensures that the government restrictions placed on federal funding for abortion are extended to the new health care systems, the public option and plans subsidized in the proposed insurance exchanges" (Stupak/Pitts, Washington Post, 11/11).

Senators Work To Block Antiabortion Changes

According to Roll Call, several female Democratic senators on Tuesday met to discuss a strategy for preventing the addition of more restrictive language to the Senate bill. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said the senators had a "good meeting" that focused on how to block an amendment similar to Stupak's. Boxer said, "We will work together to ensure that the decades-long compromise of no federal funds for abortion is what is in the Senate bill, and we will fight against any amendment that prevents women from using their own private funds for their reproductive health care," adding that they are "optimistic that compromise will prevail" (Bendery, Roll Call, 11/10). The meeting included Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who issued a statement opposing Stupak's amendment. McCaskill's statement said that the House bill "goes too far limiting private funds" for abortion coverage and that Congress should not "change current law, which is no public money for abortions." Boxer called Stupak's amendment "unfair and discriminatory toward women." She added that it "singles [women] out as a group and would deny women access to a legal medical procedure by dictating what a woman can do with her own private funds."

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, also said the House bill goes too far. He said, "I fear that the House-passed language will effectively prevent women from receiving abortion coverage under the new health exchanges, even if they are using their own money to buy insurance" (New York Times, 11/11).

In a floor speech on Tuesday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said the amendment was "not only discriminatory but ridiculous." She added, "This is government invading the personal lives of many Americans, establishing for the first time restrictions on people who pay for their own private health insurance." Gillibrand also criticized a provision in Stupak's amendment that would allow insurance companies to sell separate riders for abortion coverage, which would be purchased with private funds. She said the provision "would require women to essentially plan for an event that occurs in the most unplanned and sometimes emergency situations" (Brune, Long Island Newsday, 11/11).

Amendment Shows Influence of Catholic Church

The addition of Stupak's amendment shows how the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops "has emerged as a major political force with the potential to upend a key piece of President Obama's agenda," the Wall Street Journal reports. Over the weekend, House Democratic leaders had hoped that a previous compromise limiting the use of federal funds for abortion coverage would be enough to win the votes of antiabortion-rights Democrats. However, during negotiations, the bishops "made it clear" that they would not support the compromise and would oppose the entire bill if it was included (Wallsten, Wall Street Journal, 11/10).

Kathy Saile of USCCB said, "We stayed in the conversation until the end, because the bishops have always been adamant about the need for genuine health care reform and want to see health care reform happen" (Hirschfeld Davis, AP/Yahoo! News, 11/11). Laurie Rubiner, vice president for public policy at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the bishops "came in at the last minute and drew a line in the sand," adding, "It's very hard to compete with that" (Wall Street Journal, 11/10).

Health Reform Marks Re-emergence of Abortion Issues

The debate over abortion coverage in health care reform legislation "threatens not only to stall the passage" of a final bill "but also to shatter the delicate cease-fire that has governed the abortion issue during the Obama era," Politico reports. While the House bill "wasn't supposed to become a referendum on abortion rights," the passage of Stupak's amendment "reshaped the legislative landscape," according to Politico. Now, Democrats "find themselves faced with a stark set of alternatives: Support a bill that imposes limits on access to abortion or demand one that might, however indirectly, fund the procedure with taxpayer money," Poltico reports (Burns, Politico, 11/11).

NPR Explains Antiabortion Amendment

NPR's "All Things Considered" on Wednesday included a discussion between host Melissa Block and Julie Rovner, NPR's health policy correspondent, on Stupak's amendment and the prospects for additional abortion restrictions in the Senate bill. Rovner said that there are "already some pro-life Democrats who are talking about adding" the Stupak amendment to Senate bill. In addition, "There are 40 House pro-choice Democrats who say they won't vote for [a] final bill unless this language is taken out," Rovner said, adding, "It's going to be tricky. They're going to have to find a compromise" (Block, "All Things Considered," NPR, 11/10).

Democratic Party 'Captive to Christian Conservatism,' Salon Opinion Piece Says

"American women will pay the price for the Democratic dithering" that allowed the passage of the Stupak amendment, Salon's Jeff Sharlet writes in an opinion piece. He adds that "the Democratic Party will suffer collateral damage" from the amendment, which serves as "evidence that on abortion the Democratic Party is now captive, just like the GOP, to Christian conservatism" (Sharlet, Salon, 11/10).

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