House Democratic leaders break abortion stalemate on healthcare bill

By DAVID ESPO and RICARDO ALSONSO-ZALDIVAR

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — House Democrats have cleared an impasse over abortion that has been holding up a vote on sweeping healthcare legislation.

A vote is expected today after President Barack Obama makes a late morning trip to the Capitol to make one final pitch for the legislation.

According to Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, he and other abortion opponents will be given a chance to insert tougher abortion restrictions into the legislation during debate on the House floor.

The leadership hopes that no matter how that vote turns out, Democrats will then unite to give the healthcare bill a majority over unanimous Republican opposition.

Earlier, Obama lobbied by phone to save his top domestic priority, an expansion of coverage that Democrats have sought for more than a half-century.

"We’re very close" to having enough votes to prevail, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said in a midday assessment..

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi presided over late-night meetings with Democratic abortion foes, whose votes were critical to the bill’s fate, then with supporters of abortion rights, who are among the legislation’s biggest advocates.

In general, abortion opponents want to outlaw pregnancy-ending services under a government insurance option envisioned in the legislation, except in instances of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk. Additionally, they want strict limits on abortion coverages within a so-called nationwide insurance exchange in which private companies would sell policies.

Abortion-rights supporters generally want to permit coverage as long as individuals use their own money rather than federal subsidies designed to help defray the cost of insurance they could not otherwise afford.

"I think we have a fundamental disagreement in this issue. That’s a reality," California Rep. Henry Waxman, a supporter of abortion rights, said after hours of closed-door talks on the issue.

Aides to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also participated in the discussions, after the organization wrote to lawmakers that it would oppose the legislation without changes to eliminate a "fundamental flaw" on abortion.

In a struggle that combined the fate of Obama’s top domestic priority and a 2010 campaign issue, bipartisanship was not an option.

GOP leaders boasted that all 177 House Republicans stood ready to oppose the $1.2 trillion bill, which would create a new federally supervised insurance marketplace in which the uninsured could purchase coverage.

Consumers would have the option of picking a government-run plan, the most hotly contested item in the legislation and the basis for the Republican claim that Democrats were planning a government takeover of the insurance industry.

Democrats said their bill was designed to spread coverage to millions who lack it, ban insurance industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and restrain the growth of healthcare spending nationally. The Congressional Budget Office said that if enacted, the measure would extend coverage to 96 percent of all eligible Americans within 10 years.

Obama arranged to visit the Capitol complex Saturday to make one final pitch to fellow Democrats for the measure. He and others in his administration spent part of the day lobbying intensely for its passage.

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