Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius confirms that the Senate health ‘reform’ bill will require everyone to pay for abortion coverage.

Meanwhile, CNS reports that the White House and the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives have been pressuring Rep. Stupak not to speak out on the “compromise” abortion language in the Senate version of the health care bill.
 
“They think I shouldn’t be expressing my views on this bill until they get a chance to try to sell me the language,” Stupak told CNSNews.com in an interview on Tuesday. “Well, I don’t need anyone to sell me the language. I can read it. I’ve seen it. I’ve worked with it. I know what it says. I don’t need to have a conference with the White House. I have the legislation in front of me here.”
 
The Michigan Democrat succeeded last month in getting 64 House Democrats to join him in attaching his pro-life amendment to the House version of the health-care bill. The “Stupak amendment,” as the provision is known, would prohibit the federal government from allocating taxpayer money to pay for any part of any health insurance plan that covers abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger. 
 
Stupak had contact with the White House last weekend, when the Senate voted 60 to 40 in the wee hours of Monday morning to shut off debate on the Senate version of the bill.
 
The current version of the Senate bill contains so-called “compromise” language crafted by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). This language does not bar taxpayer funding of health plans that cover abortion, but does create a firewall to supposedly keep federal money from being used to pay for abortions. Over the weekend, Stupak issued a statement calling the proposed Senate language “unacceptable.”

Read the rest of the CNS story here.

Here is the contact information for the so-called ‘pro-life’ Senators who voted FOR cloture on the bill.  Final vote is scheduled for December 24 at 8:00AM, so call IMMEDIATELY: 

• Evan Bayh (IN) – (202) 224-5623
• Bob Casey (PA) – (202) 224-6324
• Kent Conrad (ND) – (202) 224-2043
• Byron Dorgan (ND) – (202) 224-2551
• Ted Kaufman (DE) – (202) 224-5042
• Ben Nelson (NE) – (202) 224-6551
• Mark Pryor (AR) – (202) 224-2353

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 at 10:25 am and is filed under Abortion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.