Bart Stupak: "No One Is Happy" with Senate Abortion Language

By: Michelle Levi
Topics: Washington Unplugged

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) called Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson's abortion ammendment, which was added to the health care bill in the Senate this weekend "a hybrid" plan that "no one is happy" with.

"Its a dramatic shift in federal policy," he told John Dickerson on Monday's "Washington Unplugged." The congressman who was successful in his campaign to exclude abortion coverage from the public option or private plans which are paid for with federal subsidies in the House health care bill said he hopes Nelson's language would closer match his once the bill leaves conference.

"Maybe the senator has it somewhat correct in that the pro-life groups are not happy, the pro-choice groups are not happy," Stupak said of Senator Nelson's language.

He said that House Democrats have concerns with the Senate bill other than just the abortion language, but of the 41 Democratic representatives who supported the Stupak ammendment, "there are probably at least a dozen members who voted for [the House bill] who will not vote for it unless we have satisfactory language on the abortion langauge which basically says no public funding for abortion."

Stupak said that he was in contact with the White House and Nelson over this past weekend.

Would he support a bill which looked like Nelson's language after the final conference?

He is not committing. "This bill will not fall on one issue," he said.

You can watch the full video above.

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"Washington Unplugged" appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.

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by bc-1948 December 21, 2009 7:04 PM EST: So, expect Stupak to take advantage of his clout to gain benefits for his state - just like Nelson and Leiberman. To bad, but if the Republicans would have agreed to be part of this - then it wouldn't have taken such a effort to get the support of all Democrats. Look at the 65 Medicare bill. 13 Republican senators voted for it - 68 Republican house members voted for it. Not all Democrats voted for it - but because it was bi-partisan it didn't take all of them and no-one could hold it hostage until they got the state concessions they wanted. But, when the starting point is one side wanting Universal coverage and the other side wanting status quo - it became a political game - resulting in a very few senators and representatives to leverage their vote.; Reply to this comment