Emily
MikeWhat’s with Sen. Ben Nelson anyway? He is willing to completely destroy any hope for a Senate bill on health care reform because of his abortion stance. Never mind that the draft bill has been almost completely stripped of any meaningful reform.
And this is almost laughable. According to the Associated Baptist Press, a coalition of 39 “pro-life Christian pastors and leaders released a statement Dec. 18 applauding alternative language aimed at preventing health-care reform from being derailed by debate over abortion.” They say that they think “compromise” language proposed by Sen. Robert Casey (also a Democrat like Nelson) should be sufficiently acceptable to Nelson so that he can vote to allow the health care bill to go forward to a full vote. And what do the “evangelical leaders” say they like about the compromise language?:
Sen. Casey’s alternative language, which we expect to be available in its final legislative form soon, could ensure that strong provider-conscience protections passed in the House bill are maintained; no federal funds pay for abortions in any way; and no [insurance] premium dollars from individuals who opt out of abortion coverage will be used to fund abortions.”
This is compromise language? And Nelson will probably still not agree to it? I have a hard time agreeing with Howard Dean and others that the current version of the Senate health care draft is so weak that we should just forget about the whole thing. But the situation is so distressing that it makes you wonder.
Filed under: Abortion, Health, Law Tagged: | Abortion, Ben Nelson, Health Care, Robert Casey
