The Senate's Big Abortion Flub
How one missing sentence gave new ammo to foes of the health care bill.
By Nick Baumann
MotherJones
Mon Mar. 15, 2010
As the battle for health care reform enters the endgame, abortion foes in and out of Congress are trying mightily to block the bill. And one small mistake—essentially, a typo in the drafting of the bill—has given them a major piece of ammo. An accidental one-sentence omission in the Senate’s version of the legislation has provided anti-abortion crusaders an opening to claim that the bill could lead to "hundreds of thousands of abortions per year that taxpayers would be forced to pay for," as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops puts it [1].
This has become a conservative talking point. For decades, the federal government has been prevented from generally funding abortions, and anti-abortion advocates are making the dramatic assertion that passing the health care reform bill will change that. The National Right to Life Committee maintains [2] that the Senate bill "will allow direct federal funding of abortion, without restriction." Tony Perkins' Family Research Council has warned of the same [3]. Illinois Rep. Daniel Lipinski, a pro-life Democrat, says [4] the measure "allows taxpayer money to pay directly” for abortions.
The pro-lifers are wrong. The Senate bill won't lead to government directly funding abortions [5]. But the Democrats screwed up. They could have easily prevented this particular line of attack. All it would have taken is a single line of text.
Here's what happened: In December, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was struggling to convince all 60 members of the Democratic caucus to vote to break a possible filibuster of the bill. First, the public option was stripped out to appease centrists like Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). A few days later, a substitute provision that would have allowed people above the age of 55 to "buy in" to Medicare was also killed. That's when liberals started to revolt.
(More here.)
By Nick Baumann
MotherJones
Mon Mar. 15, 2010
As the battle for health care reform enters the endgame, abortion foes in and out of Congress are trying mightily to block the bill. And one small mistake—essentially, a typo in the drafting of the bill—has given them a major piece of ammo. An accidental one-sentence omission in the Senate’s version of the legislation has provided anti-abortion crusaders an opening to claim that the bill could lead to "hundreds of thousands of abortions per year that taxpayers would be forced to pay for," as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops puts it [1].
This has become a conservative talking point. For decades, the federal government has been prevented from generally funding abortions, and anti-abortion advocates are making the dramatic assertion that passing the health care reform bill will change that. The National Right to Life Committee maintains [2] that the Senate bill "will allow direct federal funding of abortion, without restriction." Tony Perkins' Family Research Council has warned of the same [3]. Illinois Rep. Daniel Lipinski, a pro-life Democrat, says [4] the measure "allows taxpayer money to pay directly” for abortions.
The pro-lifers are wrong. The Senate bill won't lead to government directly funding abortions [5]. But the Democrats screwed up. They could have easily prevented this particular line of attack. All it would have taken is a single line of text.
Here's what happened: In December, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was struggling to convince all 60 members of the Democratic caucus to vote to break a possible filibuster of the bill. First, the public option was stripped out to appease centrists like Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). A few days later, a substitute provision that would have allowed people above the age of 55 to "buy in" to Medicare was also killed. That's when liberals started to revolt.
(More here.)
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