Hard News: Could Abortion Abort Health Care Progress?

One of the key issues in the highly controversial Health Care Bill, which was approved by the Senate December 24th, 2009, and earlier that month by the House of Representatives, remains the abortion amendment. The House passed it, the Senate tabled it, and soon both must come to a compromise if any further progress will be made on the groundbreaking bill.
The amendment to the health care bill for the HOR, proposed by Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat, would deny coverage to women requesting federal funding for an abortion under the new government health insurance plan. The exception to this amendment allows covering abortions only in cases of rape, incest, or where the life of a mother is threatened.
Stupak cited federal law already in practice as reason enough for keeping abortion away from federal funding. The Hyde Amendment, passed in 1976, prohibits government funding of abortions.
Federal subsidies used to purchase insurance from private insurers, one of the benefits of the proposed bill, would also have the same limitations as the aforementioned. Customers needing insurance coverage would have the option of purchasing separate insurance riders at their own expense.
Sixty four democrats and 176 Republicans ultimately voted in favor of the amendment.
With only one Republican vote in favor of the health bill in the HOR, several democrats cited the anti-abortion amendment as necessary for leading to the success of the bill, which barely passed with a 220-215 vote.
Another view on Capitol Hill claims the amendment is too restricting, as the Senate has decided to pass the bill without adding a similar proposed amendment, sharing ideas with the House. The amendment for the Senate was proposed by a dual-party team of Democratic Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson and Republican Utah Senator Orrin Hatch.
Among the several reasons for rejecting the amendment, Democratic California Senator Barbara Boxer claims women are being singled out, as men have no operational procedure that can be denied when using private funds. The amendment would deny the right of abortion, even with use of private funds, under federal subsidized healthcare.
Without the amendment passed the states have the right to accept or reject the option of abortion coverage through private funds.
The Senate ultimately passed the bill after tabeling (ruling out) the proposed amendment, the healthcare bill came through with a 60-39 vote. Fifty eight Democrats and two independents voted yes, while Republicans unanimously voted no.
If ultimately passed, the law would be the biggest expansion of federal healthcare since Medicare and Medicade, over forty years ago.

I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO READ THE BILL FOR THEMSELVES, AND READ IT WELL! There's plenty of strongly biased websites out there from both sides claiming terrible and miraculous things that this bill will do that are flat out lies.

A version of the house bill can be found here

The Senate bill in pdf form

Stay well informed!
-Dave Theisen