Blog - The Senate's Stupak

As expected, Sen. Ben Nelson [D, NE] filed his abortion amendment today, and it looks very similar to the Stupak amendment in the House, including this language:

No funds authorized or appropriated by this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) may be used to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion…

In other words, it’s designed to block all women purchasing insurance on the new Exchanges from buying a plan that covers abortions, even if they are paying for the plan entirely with their own money. You can read the full amendment at Politico.

In the House, the Democratic leadersship decided to allow a vote on the Stupak abortion amendment at the last minute to win over support for the bill from moderates in their party. The passage of Stupak allowed for the passage of the overall bill. The Senate version will be debate and voted on in the Senate tomorrow. It’s expected to fail, which could cause Sen. Nelson, a key swing vote, to filibuster.

Sen. Thomas Coburn [R, OK] today said he expects the amendment to come back as part of a manager’s amendment that will be offered by Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid [D, NV] before the final vote on passing the bill.

“They want to vote on it. They want to get the vote out. Let everybody cover themselves,” Coburn said today at a GOP press conference. “My suspicion is that when we see a manager’s amendment, the Stupak language will be in there. They’re going to allow a cover vote—that’s why they want to hurry up with this vote to allow a cover vote so everyone can state their positions and then say, ‘Well, I couldn’t control the manager’s amendment.’”