Senate
kills
pro-life amend. on health care, now working to filibuster health
care bill
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to table -- and thereby kill
-- an amendment that would have barred federal funds in health-care
reform from paying for abortions.
The 54-45 vote to table the amendment turned back an effort by Sens.
Ben Nelson, D.-Neb., and Orrin Hatch, R.-Utah, to revise the Senate
health-care bill to prohibit federal funding for abortions in a
government-managed program and federal subsidies for private insurance
plans that cover abortions.
With the tabling of the Nelson-Hatch Amendment, the bill sponsored by
Majority Leader Harry Reid -- the Patient Protection and Affordable
Health Care Act -- moves forward without the restrictions on federal
funding of abortion that were placed in the measure by the House of
Representatives. The pro-life restrictions in the House bill were
promoted by Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.).
Two Republicans -- Susan Collins and Olympic Snowe, each of Maine --
joined 52 Democrats in supporting the table resolution. Opposing the
table resolution were 38 Republicans and seven Democrats: Evan Bayh
(Ind.), Robert Casey (Pa.), Kent Conrad (N.D.), Byron Dorgan (N.D.),
Ted Kaufman (Del.), Nelson and Mark Pryor (Ark.).
Having seen an amendment lose that would have prevented the Senate
health care bill from funding abortions, the nation's leading pro-life
groups say they'll now urge senators to defeat the overall bill with a
filibuster.
Their chances of success are unknown, although they apparently have one
Democratic ally -- Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska -- who has said he has
"drawn a line in the sand" and would filibuster the bill if it didn't
contain language prohibiting tax dollars from paying for abortions. It
was Nelson's amendment that was defeated Tuesday when the Senate voted
to "table" the proposal, 54-45, essentially killing it. The amendment
mirrored language that was added to the House health care bill by Rep.
Bart Stupak (D-Mich.).
Nelson's support of the overall bill is critical: There are 60 senators
in the Democratic caucus and it takes 60 votes to break a filibuster.
The pro-life groups say they'll ask their constituents to call their
senators and urge a "no" vote on "cloture," which if passed with 60
votes would stop a filibuster and limit debate.
"[T]his is a long way from over," the National Right to Life Committee
said in a statement, noting that the bill again must pass the House,
where there are a bloc of pro-life Democrats.
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious
Liberty Commission, said he found Tuesday's Senate vote both
"discouraging and encouraging."
"It's discouraging that the Senate as a whole could not comprehend the
need to respect the will of 70 percent of the American people that
public funds should not pay for or subsidize the killing of our
nation's unborn citizens," Land told Baptist Press. "It was encouraging
in that the motion to table got 54 votes, well short of the 60 needed
to stop a filibuster. As long as there are sufficient pro-life senators
such as Sen. Nelson who are willing to filibuster any health
legislation that does not contain these restrictions on abortion, it
will be difficult to break the filibuster and pass the entire bill.
"In that case," Land added, "then pro-choice supporters will have to
decide between their pro-choice convictions and their desire for a
vastly increased government role in health care."
Other groups, including the Family Research Council, Democrats for
Life, Concerned Women for America and Americans United for Life, also
said they would support a filibuster. The U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops also said that failure to include pro-life language would
"require us and others to oppose this bill because it abandons both
principle and precedent."
Americans United for Life said, "We now have no choice but to work
vigorously to defeat this bill."
The Nelson amendment would have done two things: 1) prevent a
government-run public option from covering abortion, and 2) prohibit
federal subsidies for lower-income people from purchasing private plans
that cover abortion. Exceptions would be made for cases of rape, incest
and to save the mother's life. A woman would be permitted to use her
own money to purchase a "rider" that covers abortion.
It is not known, though, whether the public option will remain in the
bill. If it is dropped -- as some media outlets reported Wednesday
would happen -- then the bill conceivably could pick up the support of
one of Maine's two Republican senators (Olympia Snowe and Susan
Collins), who are both pro-choice, thus offsetting Nelson voting for a
filibuster. Snowe and Collins were the only Republican senators
opposing the Nelson amendment and are considered the GOP's most liberal
members.
Asked after Tuesday's Senate vote if he was confident the bill would be
successfully filibustered, the Family Research Council's Tom McClusky
said, "The magic of the Senate is that just about anything can
happen.... Sen. Nelson has drawn a pretty hard line when it comes to
what type of abortion language he wants to see in the bill."
Seven Democrats joined 38 Republicans in opposing the motion to table
the amendment: Nelson, Evan Bayh (Ind.), Robert Casey (Pa.), Kent
Conrad (N.D.), Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Ted Kaufman (Del.) and Mark Pryor
(Ark.).
Pro-life groups are trying to pressure those and other Democratic
senators to support a filibuster if pro-life language isn't added. The
Family Research Council says it is calling every household in Arkansas,
South Dakota and Louisiana -- all conservative states with Democratic
senators -- to conduct a survey on such topics as abortion funding,
rationing, higher taxes and the public option. It is also calling
pro-life households in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Participants who
answer a particular way will be given information on contacting their
senators, an FRC release stated. Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln
(Ark.), Tim Johnson (S.D.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Jim Webb (Va.) and
Mark Warner (Va.) all sided with pro-choicers in voting to table the
Nelson amendment.
"We're doing everything in our power to make sure that the constituents
of those senators know that those senators are voting to expand
abortion in this country," Family Research Council President Tony
Perkins said.
One concern among pro-lifers is that Democrats in both chambers will
avoid the usual House-Senate conference -- where the differences in the
two bills normally would be worked out -- and instead simply send the
Senate bill straight to the House, which could pass it without changes
and send it to President Obama. Such a move would bypass another round
of haggling in the Senate and could make the bill easier to pass. House
leaders, of course, must agree to such a move and likely would have a
say in the final Senate bill.
"I think that's clearly what they're going to do," Perkins said. "We've
been hearing that for a little over a week. They know that if … they
work on it and send it to conference, it's in great jeopardy."
The challenge for House leaders, Perkins said, would be to get the 64
Democrats who voted for the Stupak pro-life amendment last time to
support a pro-choice health care bill.
"They would have to go back on that vote and support taxpayer funding
of abortion," Perkins said of the 64 Democrats. "I think it will be a
major fight in the House to approve the Senate bill."
Pro-lifers also are anticipating Reid bringing to the floor a
"manager's amendment" with supposed pro-life language that would be
promoted as a compromise. Perkins said it likely would be "fake"
pro-life language.
During debate Tuesday, Nelson told senators he wasn't there "to debate
for or against abortion."
"This is a debate about taxpayer money," Nelson said. "It's a debate
about whether it's appropriate for public funds to -- for the first
time in more than three decades -- cover elective abortions.... Most
Americans and most of the people in my state would say, 'No.' ... Some
suggest that the Stupak language imposes new restrictions on abortion.
But that's not really the case. We're seeking to just apply the same
standards to the Senate health-care bill that already exist for many
federal health programs.”
A CNN poll in November found American adults are against "using public
funds for abortions when the woman cannot afford it" by a 61-37 percent
margin. Other polls have found slightly higher or lower percentages,
but all show that adults oppose federal funding of abortion.
Contact: Michael
Foust
Source:
BP
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Date:
December 8 & 10, 2009
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The IFRL is the largest grassroots pro-life organization in
Illinois. A non-profit organization, that serves as the state
coordinating body for local pro-life chapters representing thousands of
Illinois citizens working to restore respect for all human life in our
society. The IFRL is composed of people of different political
persuasions, various faiths and diverse economic, social and ethnic
backgrounds. Since 1973 the Illinois Federation for Right to Life has
been working to end abortion and restore legal protection to those members of the
human family who are threatened by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. Diverse though we are, we hold one common belief - that
every human being has an inalienable right to life that is precious and must be protected. IFRL is
dedicated to restoring the right to life to the unborn, and protection
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