Sens. Nelson, Hatch To Introduce Stupak-Like Antiabortion Amendment During Senate Debate

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 03 Dec 2009 - 3:00 PST


On Tuesday, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said he plans to introduce an amendment to the Senate's health care reform bill that will be "as identical to Stupak as it can be" -- a reference to Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) amendment to the House health reform bill (HR 3962) that would ban abortion coverage in public and private health insurance plans that receive federal subsidies, CongressDaily reports. Currently, the Senate bill would allow insurance plans to offer abortion coverage but would require insurers to segregate federal subsidies from consumers' private contributions that would cover abortion services, CongressDaily reports (Edney et al., CongressDaily, 12/1).

According to CQ Today, Nelson's amendment will be co-sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.), who also opposes abortion rights, said on Tuesday that he is likely to support the amendment, adding that he expects its language to be similar to a rejected amendment proposed by Hatch during committee markup. Nelson supported that amendment. Casey also said, "As difficult as the next couple of weeks are going to be on a lot of issues, I don't see any one issue that will prevent passage."

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said the Nelson-Hatch amendment is "a radical amendment that really singles out women for punishment." Boxer said she is confident opponents of the amendment will be able to block it, adding, "I need to work with my colleagues and make the case that the women in the Senate who believe that government should stay out of our private lives and out of our private money are going to work very hard to defeat the Stupak amendment over here."

Casey said that it is "highly likely" the amendment will get a floor vote and that opponents are likely to insist on a 60-vote requirement for adoption. Hatch said it would be difficult to obtain 60 votes to overcome a filibuster of the amendment. "It's uphill for us, there's no question about it," he said (Hunter [1], CQ Today, 12/1).

Vote Wednesday on Preventive Care Amendment

The Senate is scheduled on Wednesday to vote on an amendment by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) that would require insurers to offer women a package of preventive health benefits with no copayments, the New York Times' "Prescriptions" reports. According to "Prescriptions," Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) hopes to offer an alternative to Mikulski's amendment (Herszenhorn, "Prescriptions," New York Times, 12/1). Mikulski's amendment, co-sponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), would cost $940 million over 10 years, the Washington Post reports (Murray/Montgomery, Washington Post, 12/2). The amendment would direct the Health Resources and Services Administration to develop "comprehensive guidelines" for preventive care and screenings for women, and insurers would be required to cover the services with no cost-sharing by patients.

"Women often forgo those critical preventive screenings because they simply cannot afford it, or their insurance company won't pay for it unless it is mandated by state law," Mikulski said, adding that her amendment would "shrink or eliminate the high cost of copayments and deductibles" for women who receive screening for cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other conditions (Pear/Herszenhorn, New York Times, 12/2).

According to the AP/Yahoo! News, the amendment was written partially in response to recent U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations that women begin regular mammograms at age 50, rather than 40. Shortly thereafter, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued new cervical cancer screening guidelines, including that most women in their 20s be screened every two years, rather than annually. The task force, which provides advice to government officials on health issues, and ACOG do not set federal policy, but Republicans "seized on those recommendations as early signs of rationing of care" through health reform, the AP/Yahoo! News reports (Alonso-Zaldivar, AP/Yahoo! News, 12/1).

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said votes on Mikulski's amendment will indicate whether Republicans "truly want to improve this bill or just want to play games, stall." He added that decisions regarding mammograms "should be left up to the patient and the doctor" and "should not be made by some bureaucrat, a member of Congress or someone they've never met" (New York Times, 12/2). According to CQ Today, Reid has not indicated that he will use procedural maneuvers to speed up action on the bill, despite disagreements over how to govern the debate on amendments. Democrats have said they want to have a final vote on the bill by Christmas (Hunter [2], CQ Today, 12/1).

Opinion Piece Argues for Private Funding for Abortion Coverage

In a Christian Science Monitor opinion piece, consultant Mark Lange argues that the Stupak amendment "isn't the threat it's being spun to be" and that the issue of federal funding for abortion coverage and services "will only be left alone, as a matter of private conscience, when it is only funded with private money." He urges the Senate to "play its role as the cool saucer containing the House's hot excess" and "adopt language that explicitly bars public funding for abortion, unambiguously allows private premiums to cover it and requires the new insurance exchanges to offer at least one plan that doesn't cover elective abortions, if they offer paid plans that do." He also says that abortion-rights supporters "should raise money and support it the way it matters, by making a donation to Planned Parenthood." Meanwhile, abortion-right opponents "should do something real to live up to that moral position," such as supporting groups that help infants with fetal alcohol syndrome, and they "should adopt, foster and heal every one of the unwanted and abused children brought to term in the name of religious principle," Lange says (Lange, Christian Science Monitor, 12/1).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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