Hot-Button Amendments Complicate Health Reform Bill

The debate highlighted how an extremely divisive issue like abortion can overshadow the larger debate about overhauling the nation's health care system. 
 
Introduced by moderate Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the amendment would have prevented private insurance companies that receive money from the government from offering coverage for abortion. It would have also barred any taxpayer-funded public health insurance plan -- or "public option" -- from covering abortion. 
 
"Most Nebraskans, and Americans, do not favor using public funds to cover abortion," Nelson said Monday, "And as a result this bill shouldn't open the door to do so." 
 
Abortion rights supporters say if such restrictions made it into law, it would take away choices from women, particularly poor women. Center for Reproductive Rights President Nancy Northup said that it "would dramatically worsen the current state of affairs and prohibit women from using their own money to buy abortion coverage," according to the Detroit Free Press. 

Senate Majority Leader Wrangling for 60 Votes

	As Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid will lead the charge to get 60 votes to pass the Senate's bill.

Nelson has promised to vote against any health care bill that did not include language prohibiting abortion, placing abortion rights advocate Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in an awkward position.  
Although the amendment was not expected to pass the Senate, Reid still wants Nelson's support in order to get the 60 votes needed to pass the whole health care package.  
 
Senate Republicans have pledged to "filibuster" the health care bill as it stands, preventing it from coming to a vote. In the U.S. Senate, 60 votes are needed for a bill to override any such filibuster.  
 
Reid will spend the coming days negotiating over issues such as abortion and a government-funded public option with Senate moderates like Nelson and Republican Olympia Snowe from Maine in order to have enough votes for the bill to pass. Some liberal senators have expressed concerns that any compromises would water down the bill too much for it to be effective.

Stupak Abortion Amendment Almost Derailed House's Health Care Bill

	House Speaker Nancy Pelosi narrowly passed the House's health care bill after accepting an amendment restricting abortion coverage.

A similar provision to restrict abortion coverage, known as the Stupak Amendment, was adopted by the House of Representatives last month in a last-ditch effort to win the support of anti-abortion Congress members who would not have otherwise supported the health care bill. 
 
After House Democrats had spent months garnering support for health care legislation, Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak sponsored an amendment that restricted abortion coverage through plans that received federal subsidies.  
 
After much internal wrangling within her own party, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who supports abortion rights, allowed the amendment into the bill which ultimately passed. 

What's Next for the Health Care Bill?

	Both chambers of Congress must merge two separate versions of legislation in what is called a conference committee.

President Obama’s push to overhaul the health care system faces several hurdles. First, the two chambers of Congress -- the Senate and the House -- must pass their own individual health care bills. The House already passed its bill in a 220 to 215 vote.  
 
If the Senate passes a bill, members of both chambers would meet in a conference committee to discuss and merge details of the two bills. The merged bill would then have to be passed by both the House and the Senate before it goes before President Obama to sign into law or veto.  
 
The verdict is still out on whether Congressional leaders will be able to pass a bill with controversial provisions like the public option.