Senate rejects abortion amendment to health reform legislation

The Senate voted against strengthening restrictions for
federal funding of abortion Tuesday evening, a development that could imperil
Democrats’ efforts to pass an underlying healthcare reform bill.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who offered the amendment, had
indicated that he could support a Republican filibuster of the healthcare
reform bill if the abortion language were not added to it. The Senate voted to
table Nelson’s amendment, which takes it off the floor with a simple majority,
on a 54-45 tally.

{mosads}“It’s made it harder to be supportive. We’ll just have to
see what develops,” Nelson said after the vote. “We’ll have to see if they can
make it easier.”

Senate Democratic leaders said they would keep the lines of
communication open with Nelson, who also opposes other elements of the
healthcare reform bill.

“I’m happy to continue working with Sen. Nelson with the
issue that is now on the floor,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
said prior to the vote. “If, in fact, he doesn’t succeed here, we’ll try
something else.” Reid opposes abortion rights.

“No one should use the healthcare bill to expand or restrict
abortion,” Reid said during an emotional floor speech. “And no one should
use the issue of abortion to rob millions of the opportunity to get good
healthcare.”

Six Democrats voted with Nelson: Sens. Byron Dorgan (N.D.),
Bob Casey Jr. (Pa.), Evan Bayh (Ind.), Ted Kaufman (Del.), Mark Pryor (Ark.)
and Kent Conrad (N.D.).

Those Democrats are not expected to oppose the healthcare
bill as a result of the amendment’s failing.

Maine’s two Republican senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan
Collins, voted against Nelson.

Reid needs to hold together the entire 60-member Democratic
Conference if he hopes to pass the healthcare reform bill. Losing Nelson would
be fatal unless Reid were to make concessions in other areas to win the votes
of Snowe or other GOP senators.

Reid could insert another compromise on abortion into the
bill, but a middle ground has proven elusive all year.

“I had no Plan B,” Nelson said. “Maybe
somebody else has a Plan B, but I don’t see that this is one where there’s
really any room for compromise.”

On the other side of the issue, the vote on the Nelson
amendment demonstrated, however, that nearly all of the Senate’s Democrats
support abortion rights and oppose the restrictions favored by Nelson and Rep.
Bart Stupak (D-Mich.).

“Putting the Stupak language in, of course, raises other
questions,” Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said. “This is a zero-sum
situation: We could gain one senator and lose several others.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) responded to threats
by Stupak and other anti-abortion-rights Democrats to oppose the House’s
healthcare bill over the abortion issue by permitting a vote on the amendment.
Sixty-four Democrats voted for the amendment, which passed 240-194.

The House’s action sparked fury from activist groups to
lawmakers in both chambers. House Democrats who voted to pass the healthcare
bill despite the abortion language vowed to oppose any conference report that
retained the Stupak language, while Senate Democrats pledged to stymie efforts
to add similar provisions to that bill.

Existing federal law already prohibits taxpayer funds from
being used to fund abortion services except in cases of rape, incest or when
the life of the woman is endangered by the pregnancy. Reid insists that his
bill merely maintains that current standard, but Nelson, other
anti-abortion-rights lawmakers and groups that oppose such rights, including
the Catholic Church, do not think the legislation does enough to block federal
money from going to abortions

Opponents of the Nelson amendment, which is based on the
Stupak provisions in the House bill, maintain that it would effectively prevent
women from obtaining abortion coverage through the health insurance plans
offered under the reform bill.