Senators prepare to debate abortion treatment in Senate bill

The Associated Press: "Senators debating health care legislation are headed for a clash over abortion, the issue that threatened to derail the bill in the House. Anticipating the showdown, hundreds of abortion rights supporters gathered on Capitol Hill Wednesday to call on senators to keep new abortion restrictions out of the health care bill. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., plans to unveil an anti-abortion amendment as early as Thursday that abortions rights supporters inside the Senate and out say they can't support. Nelson says he won't vote for the underlying bill without his strong abortion language. But opponents say his amendment doesn't have the votes to pass."

"The outcome could be critical in determining the fate of President Barack Obama's signature health overhaul agenda. At issue is how abortions would be handled in the health care bills. ... Behind the scenes, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who opposes abortions but wants to vote for the overall health care bill, has been working to find language that could satisfy both sides" (Werner, 12/2). 

Politico reports that as abortion supporters rallied on the Hill Wednesday to urge the Senate to oppose an anti-abortion amendment such as the one inserted by the House in the health bill, "opponents are up with radio ads thanking lawmakers who supported it. The Susan B. Anthony List is airing ads praising Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Joe Pitts (R-Penn.) for voting in favor of the amendment, which would prohibit insurance plans in the federal exchanges from covering abortion services. The group raised $20,000 online in the last 24 hours to air the ads" (12/2).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.