Abortion and the health care debate: summing up today's news

The partisan tug of war that continues to hold up the health care bill has a new (or recycled) focal point this week: abortion restrictions that Democratic Bart Stupak has said are pivotal in getting his vote in favor of the bill, and as NPR noted, "Of the remaining issues with the potential to bring down the entire health overhaul effort, the one that lawmakers fear most is abortion."

RH Reality Check called Stupak a "petulant child," which is perhaps more generous terminology than The Lady Finger would use at this point. "In my eyes [the president] has to be a little more flexible, especially on this issue of no public funding for abortion,” Stupak said, as recounted by the New York Times today.

In a separate post, RH Reality Check expanded on the details of what proposed language by Senator Ben Nelson would mean for women: "In terms of abortion coverage, women will not only be worse off with this version of health reform, they will also face institutionalized sex discrimination for basic reproductive health care." On Stupak's insistence that there can be no federal funding for abortion, RH Reality Check explains that that's not even on the table. In fact, "the Senate bill does not contain language allowing public funding of abortion and... will result in the elimination of women's access to private coverage for abortion care." Hot Air explains the history of the Nelson-Stupak controversy, and The Atlantic Wire has a great round-up here.

Nancy Pelosi said it most clearly: "There is no federal funding for abortion. That is the law of the land. It is not changed in this bill." What we're left to fight for is basic protections for the status quo in reproductive health care.  According to Politico, abortion language may simply be relegated to a separate bill if it's the only hold-up on the much anticipated, long awaited health care reform bill. But if Congress can't work it out, Stupak will  undermine health care reform, as he told ABC today. Yes, it's a man who has no uterus who's engineering these decisions for the entire country. -TLF