House Democrats Set Abortion Vote, Clearing Way For Health Bill

The antiabortion amendment from Rep. Bart Stupak, (D., Mich.), and Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.) will come before the full House for a vote as early as Saturday.

The concession to allow a vote is significant because House Democrats are not allowing votes on any other substantive amendments, save one Republican amendment that is an alternative to the Democrats' plan.

Stupak, speaking before the House Rules Committee just after midnight Saturday, said his amendment will provide that federal subsidies cannot be used to purchase a health plan that includes coverage for abortions other than in cases of rape or incest.

"This ensures that those who want abortions have access to it, without forcing anyone to pay for anyone's abortion with tax dollars or their own private funds, " Stupak said.

The abortion talks were aimed at crafting language that both antiabortion and abortion-rights camps could agree to and that kept current prohibitions on federal funding for abortion intact. But those talks failed, said Stupak. The fall-back plan was a separate vote on his amendment.

"If our amendment is made in order, yes, I believe it will pass," Stupak said.

President Obama is slated to travel to Capitol Hill to address Democrats Saturday at about 11:30 a.m. EST, after which debate on the health bill will commence.

The $1.055 trillion bill would extend insurance coverage to 96% of nonelderly Americans, setting up exchanges where they could choose between private plans and a government-run insurance option. If the House passes a bill, it will still have to be reconciled with a bill still pending in the Senate.

Disagreements over the bill's treatment of abortion bedeviled Democratic leaders in negotiations throughout the day and into the night Friday.

Stupak claimed he had as many as 40 antiabortion Democratic lawmakers who were willing to vote against a rule for the bill unless Democratic leaders strengthened language preventing federal money from being used to fund abortion services.

But proposals from Stupak and other antiabortion Democrats--including keeping abortion out of a public insurance option that is a centerpiece of the health bill--were nonstarters for the far more numerous abortion-rights Democrats in the House.

"If you say the public option cannot be used for a medical procedure, you are greatly restricting a choice compared to current law," said Rep. Diana Degette ( D-Colo.), who is negotiating on behalf of abortion-rights Democrats. "That is not acceptable to me."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) shuttled between meetings with both groups throughout the evening Friday. Pelosi even sat down with representatives from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to try to broker a solution. The Bishops urged antiabortion Democrats to hold their ground and oppose a procedural vote on the bill, unless stronger protections were added against federal funding of abortion.

"We are concerned because the current legislation before the House of Representatives fails to keep in place the longstanding federal policy against the use of federal funds for elective abortion or for plans that include elective abortion," the Conference of Bishops wrote in a Friday letter to lawmakers.

"Without such protection we will have to oppose the current legislation until this fundamental flaw is remedied," they wrote.

-By Martin Vaughan, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9244; martin.vaughan@ dowjones.com

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