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Hope for Pro-Lifers Emerges in the Senate

by Charlie Spiering

A day before abortion advocates bused into Washington, D.C. to mount a "Day of Action" protest against abortion restrictions in health care reform legislation, they were met with discouraging news.

Senate Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska announced that, along with Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah,  he would co-sponsor language similar to the House bill’s Stupak amendment, which explicitly bars federal subsidies for health care plans that include abortion coverage.

Nelson’s announcement rejuvenated pro-life leaders who worked hard to pass the Stupak amendment in the House – up to this point, the Senate situation looked bleak as abortion advocates lobbied hard against any restrictions, and majority leader Harry Reid left out the amendment from the Senate bill.

But now Nelson picks up the pro-life banner that was carried successfully by Stupak.

“It’s as identical to Stupak as it can be,” Nelson explained to reporters about his amendment, which may see a vote next week.

On Thursday, Nelson was further emboldened, calling the Stupak language “non-negotiable” and vowing to filibuster the final health care bill without it.

“I’ve said at the end of the day if it doesn’t have Stupak language on abortion in it, I won’t vote to move it off the floor,” Nelson said.

In the House, Stupak proved that a strict abortion amendment was not only possible, but necessary for a health care reform bill to move forward. The effort in the Senate, however, has drawn more controversy. Pro-choice leaders, who may have been caught off-guard during the House passage of the bill, are determined to block restrictions on abortions in the final bill.

Nelson’s pro-life stand, then, serves as a shot across the bow of the newly enraged abortion activists. The hundreds of attendees at the “Day of Action” protest were whipped into a frenzy.

“The ground troops have arrived,” said Rep. Donna Edwards to raucous applause.

In a Huffington Post article, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards was delighted to note that a majority of the protesters were born “post-Roe v. Wade.” It was an appalling observation in the shadow of their murdered peers.

California’s Sen. Barbara Boxer alleged that the Stupak amendment is “the biggest rollback to a woman’s right to choose in three decades” and that its goal “is in essence to chip away, chip away and tear away Roe v. Wade.”

But Hatch noted that the Stupak amendment does not threaten existing abortion rights.
“We’re not talking about doing away with abortion. We’re talking about refusing to have federal funds pay for it,” he said.

Both sides are lobbying heavily to win the votes of their senators, and the stakes are much higher this time.  With the margins slim for final passage, each senator holds a significant amount of sway in defining the final language of the bill.

Reid is currently struggling to rally Democratic senators in support of the bill, but the continued postponement of the bill’s final vote signifies significant discord within the Senate.

The abortion restrictions are one of several issues that the Senate must hammer out in order to build a consensus for the health care reform bill. Pro-life senators are about to face a long and arduous task to successfully implement this important language in the final bill.

In the past many Republican leaders have carried the pro-life banner with pride, defining pro-life principals for years. But this year, in a clear Democratic majority, Nelson and Stupak are leading the charge of other pro-life Democrats who are risking backlash from within their own party to impose critical pro-life measures in ground changing legislation.

They deserve our support and, most importantly, our prayers.

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(The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Headline Bistro or the Knights of Columbus.)