It would be a great irony if we worked so hard to elect a pro-choice president and this law passed on his watch. This would basically sweep aside Roe v Wade.”
—Terry O’Neill, President of the National Organization for Women, November 16, 2009.
ATLANTA— As I am learning more about the Stupak-Pitts amendment to the health-care reform bill passed by the House of Representatives, I am beginning to think it might be the first part of this reform package that I really like- as well as the part of this package that could doom the bill entirely.
According to the Financial Times, the amendment works as follows:
The House passed a bill including the “Stupak-Pitts” amendment, which not only prevents abortion coverage in the public health insurance option but also prohibits private health insurers that have any customers receiving federal subsidies from offering abortion coverage to anyone else. This is sharply more restrictive than even the 1976 Hyde amendment, which banned the use of federal funds to pay for terminations, and pro-choice activists say it amounts to a de facto ban on abortion.
What a tremendous pickle Barack Obama has gotten the Democrats into. This clause stokes the hottest and most polarizing debate of the culture wars, just in time for the 2010 election cycle. It forces Barack Obama, whose approval ratings continue to slip, to publicly take a position on an intensively divisive issue at precisely the time in the health-care debate when he needs consenus and broad support.
By pinning his presidency on the passage of comprehensive health-care reform, Mr. Obama has pigeon-holed his fellow Democrats into making incredible and controversial compromises in order for that to happen. They basically have to pass any bill they can, if they are to look like credible leaders.
But this clause might be the one that proves to be too much.
The inclusion of the Stupak-Pitts clause by Nancy Pelosi into the House bill was necessary to get the bill passed by an extremely narrow margin. If Democrats later remove the clause or water it down too much, they may risk not passing the bill. If they keep the clause, they risk angering their political base, while having already lost the political center.
The Democrats should have foreseen this. How can you pass comprehensive health-care reform without touching off intense debates over abortion?
I am starting to wonder if this may well end up being the clause that kills health-care reform.
TennesseePaul
Stephen VanNuys
Brooklyn Daniel
The Freedom Thinker
Pelosi only needed to get something through the House to look like a winner. Even if she only passed the turd to the next chamber and onward to the President.
I am fairly certain that this will get pulled before it is all over. They will not anger their base and would prefer to see the Blue Dogs get beaten over this once they start trying to reconcile the two bills.
Reid is supposed to unveil his bill today from what I hear.
Yeah – we’ll see. Their going to have to have some form of compromise over abortion, because they have too many pro-lifers in their caucus (which is a good thing). Maybe this will be resolved quickly and quietly, but I’m not so sure. It’s a very, very sticky issue.
I’m actually coming to believe that their political risks are infinitely greater if they PASS the bill versus not passing it.
It is so comprehensive and basically no Republicans will vote for it.
Anything that goes wrong in healthcare in the upcoming years can be blamed on this bill and Republicans can run “I told you so” campaigns from now till the end of time (or, at least a few more election cycles).
I think if health reform failed, a majority of America probably wouldn’t care after a few months. They’d be glad just not to be hearing about it incessantly on the nightly news. Our health system has problems, but we are not on the imminent brink of catastrophe (at least not yet).
By “health reform failed,” I mean, if Democrats did not pass it because it got stalled in the Senate.
The “health care” bill, as usual, is packed with items from the Democratic wish list that have little to do with the purported subject – thus the cumbersome length of this Rube Goldberg legislation.
If members of the public could take the time and effort to decipher this mess, the outrage would be immense.
I agree Stephen, that the Democrats would be placing themselves completely at risk by passing this bill. Their leadership may be that stupid, but I suspect cooler heads will prevail and the bill in its present form would be defeated.
Let’s hope the cooler heads prevail…
[...] – As we speculated a few weeks ago, the abortion debate is now front and center in the overall health care reform [...]
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