After suffering major defeat in the US House, pro-choice advocates say the Senate is the next battleground. Nicole Safar, Legal and Policy Analyst for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, called the House approved amendment by Bart Stupak (D-Michigan) “extreme.” The Stupak amendment prohibits insurance plans purchased with government subsidies from covering abortions.
However Safar says the language extends to some who would pay for the procedure themselves;”Right now in the private insurance market about 80-percent of plans cover abortion under this amendment. That number will be drastically, drastically reduced and women will lose coverage they already have.”
Wisconsin representatives voted amongst party lines with the GOP opposed and Democrats in favor of the legislation which included a public option.
Despite conservative and moderate Senators threatening to filibuster the public option, Safar says it’s quite possible a Stupak version in that chamber will not fly. The advocate says a similar amendment has been scrapped twice at Senate committee level.
Meanwhile those on the pro-life side are not getting comfortable. In press release from Wisconsin Right to Life: Legislative Director Susan Armacost commented, “Every right-to-life American must remain vigilant because the White House and pro-abortion congressional Democratic leaders will try every trick in the book to put the objectionable pro-abortion components back into health care reform legislation.”
