Abortion Is Back

Senior Adviser To The President David Axelrod says he wants to bring abortion back into the health care bill. Well it is already in the bill. The Stupack Amendment forbidding the government from funding abortions.

The amendment, authored by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., went beyond preventing the proposed government-run plan from covering abortion to restrict federal subsidies from going toward private plans that offer abortion coverage. David Axelrod says the amendment changes the 'status quo,' something the president cannot abide.

White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod suggested Sunday that President Obama will intervene to make sure a controversial amendment restricting federal funding for abortion coverage is stripped from final health care reform legislation.

In doing so, the president would be heeding the call of abortion rights supporters like Planned Parenthood that have called the White House their "strongest weapon" in keeping such restrictions out of the bill.

The abortion amendment was tacked on to the House health care bill and was a key factor in securing the votes of moderate Democrats before the bill was approved by a narrow margin last weekend.

It is interesting that the Republicans could have killed the bill by not passing the Stupak Amendment.

Aside from wanting to keep their NRLC 100% ratings why would they do such a thing? My guess is that it is theater. This is all a show. What comes out of it? The Health Destruction Bill gets killed at the last minute by abortion foes. Politically sound. The Lefties in Congress can tell their supporters they tried really hard to pass the bill but those nasty fundie abortion foes (some of whom are Democrats) blocked it because they are against a Woman's Right To Choose. If it wasn't for them it would have passed.

Obama can stand by his promise that no one's health care plan is going to change (immediately). And the Congress critters get all kinds of cover. From, "I voted against it", to "I had to vote against it because of...". Everybody wins and the bill no one wants gets flushed.

Cross Posted at Classical Values